Cursed
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Laxus doesn't believe in vampires. No matter how cool Bickslow makes them sound. - One-shot, AU
1. Chapter 1

The house sat high atop a hill, as Gothic as it was decrepit, a wrought iron gate wrapping around the sprawling property. It served it's purpose, separating the tiny town in the valley from it's contents, but truly, it was a bit pointless. No one step foot on the property.

Not willingly, at least.

That's the villagers informed them of, when they answered the request. For fifty years, they'd suffered in relative silence, so they claimed, but no more. The house had been rather quiet, for half a century, if not more, and honestly, they claimed, the storied history of the Strauss Manor began to feel just like that; a story. A fable. Something their parents had terrified them with because their own had done the same to them.

The fear that surrounding it had begun to die down until, the youngblood of the tiny village didn't fear it at all. Not when they reached their teens. It became a bit of a game, really. To see who could sneak away from their homes in the middle of the night, make the short trek up the hill and to the property. First, who could touch the gate. Then who could open it. Would someone step a foot in? Next thing you now, a few of the local teens were breaking into the mansion.

"It was horrific. The scream." That's what one of the women in the village insisted to Laxus Dreyar as he stood there, as full of disbelief as he was excitement over this new interesting case. Thieves, bandits, highwaymen; boring shit. This? This was something new. Something he'd never heard of before. He tried not to show his interest too heavily, given the villagers seemed so freaked, but as that woman sobbed over her tale, it was hard not to just rush right out to begin the investigation. "The boys, they came running back, fast as they could. Three of them went. My son, the boy next door, and another, but he...he did not return."

"Why," Freed, one of Laxus' three understudies began, "did no one go and look? Up at the mansion? Surely you do not believe-"

"Stagnancy," another in the crowd, a man, insisted, "breeds complacency. We forgot the stories. We stopped believing. But… They are there. In their mansion. They were asleep, but now, their slumber is over."

"Uh-huh," Evergreen, the only female of the ground, hardly glanced up from filing her nails. She wasn't nearly as excited about traveling all the way out there for what she was sure was just a tragic accident. Teens playing around in a rundown building. Nothing good ever comes from that sort of thing. They'd find his body in the basement or something, having fallen through a hole in the floor, and that would be that. "Stagnancy. Sure."

"But," Freed continued to insist because he always seemed so serious about everything, "if you had just gone to look-"

"Even to look," the woman insisted to them, "is to be cursed. They will come down from their mansion, when it is time to feast, and they will...will… Please, you must help us. You must do something. These...monsters will-"

"They're not monsters." That came from Bickslow, the last of the bunch, who's tongue wobbled out of his mouth in his excitement. It wasn't able to be contained, not in him. No way. He'd only dreamed of something like this his entire life. From the time that they got the request, it was all he could do not to die right then and there because he would never be happier. Not an ounce. "They're vampires."

**.**

Freed didn't believe in vampires. None of the other believed in them. They were just a silly little ragtag team of young adults who'd met a few years back, all through Laxus. He was running a little business in a small town, taking on odd jobs and requests from the villagers. Anything from repairing a sprinkler system to solving petty crime, Laxus was down with it.

He had to be. Any source of money was all he needed. He'd been kicked out, in his late teens, of the group home his grandfather ran for unwanted children. There was no hard feelings there. Not anymore. At one time, his grandfather thought that Laxus could assist him in running the joint, but… Laxus just had other plans.

Or at least he was forced to when he found himself out on the street with only the skills he'd picked up from the group home to keep him company. He knew all the ins and outs of fixing plumbing issues, laying drywall, all sorts of things about electricity and getting the shit shocked out of him. He could figure out who stole from Gray, one of the typical troublemakers at the home. It was usually just Natsu, the other troublemaker. He could resolve rifts between the whiny little shits like Lucy and Cana, stop bullies like Erza from forcing the other kids to do terrible things, like actually learn how to read.

He could have run the fuck out of that place. Got all those kids homes.

But...he and his grandfather just couldn't get along.

And maybe he didn't want to get them homes. Give them a home, even. Not when he was still all fucked up about his own parents. His grandfather, Makarov, he was good at making amends with his demons, fucking up his own son how he had. He raised up other children, even his own grandson, in retribution and he found it.

Laxus just...had to do something different. Find his own path.

So he moved away and started his own business. With the only skills he knew. He settled spats around town, fixed anything that broke, and grew his brand. He picked the others up along the way.

Freed was the first one. A smart little shit that worked at the library Laxus frequented, when he was checking local records (land disputes were common), and he was treated like crap by the head librarian. Laxus saw talent though. And someone that he could get to do all the readin' and stuff that he didn't want to.

Evergreen was a bit different. She, uh, well, she and Laxus, well, uh, well… Well. They were gonna hook up one night, after Laxus met her at a bar, but she was just so fucking depressing. Atop the alcohol that was already dampening the mood, they ended up just sitting around on his couch after sloppily making out and she mentioned that she was looking for work and, well, he wanted someone to stick around the little building he'd begun to rent out, to be a receptionist or whatever. He needed one he wouldn't' be tempted to, uh, 'harass' or whatever and, well, Ever was no longer someone he was interested in.

At all.

Then Bickslow, that freak, that fucking freak, Laxus had no idea what the fuck happened there. One minutes, the weirdo is standing in the little office, preforming some sort of circus act, it seemed like, juggling these little wooden babies, as he tried hard to convince them that he should be allowed to join up, because who didn't need an acrobat in their act?

"We're not an act, you dingus," Evergreen had complained over from her desk as she fanned herself. "We're- Hey!"

"You're," Laxus told him with a handshake after the Mohawked man threw one of the wooden dolls right at Evergreen, hitting her squarely in the face, "hired!"

They were a strange group, to say the least. But over the past few years, they'd become his group. His business was booming and they were getting requests from all about, high and low. If you wanted it, they could do it for you. Help build a house? You're in luck. They could slap some wood together. Need a party clown for your gross kids birthday? Not only was Laxus great with kids, but it was literally the only talent Bickslow brought to the table. And now, apparently, after receiving a desperate letter in the mail, they were vampire hunters.

**.**

"This is so great," Bickslow hyped them up as they hiked up the hill and Evergreen had only come along because how could you pass up a vacation from a rinky dink town to go tour a mansion? But even as the building only loomed in the sunlight, she could tell it was not somewhere she'd like a glimpse inside. "Actual vampires. You know, we had some of them, in the circus, that my parents worked in."

"Bull shit," Ever told him and Freed only sighed because he didn't want to hear about the stupid circus again.

It was all Bickslow talked about. His tragic, tragic backstory. Tent fire, bunch of deaths. You could only hear it so many times before it just got to be too much.

"We did," the man insisted with a tongue wag. "You believe me, eh, boss? Vampires?"

Laxus just walked along, heavy boots crunching everything in his path. With his headphones in, he could hardly hear those morons and their banter. They were his group, his team, his people, his friends, but damn were they annoying.

The sun was high in the sky as they arrived at the wrought iron gates and there was no fear in any of their bellies. Just a mix of interest and wonder as the three who didn't believe couldn't understand how those down in that rundown little village could let such a massive mansion fall into decay. Shameful, really.

"Vampires," Bickslow whistled low, "definitely live here."

Reaching for the gate, Laxus easily opened it as Evergreen muttered something about tetanus.

"They'll be in their coffins," Bickslow was going on. "Sleepin' away the daylight hours. We just open it up, ya know? The lid? And then we jab 'em! Right through the heart. Crinkly old bastards, vampires are. The ones at my circus-"

"I do not," Freed complained, finally, aloud, "want to hear any more about your circus."

"Talkin' is my copin' mechanism."

"Then find," Ever retorted, "a new one."

"I used to talk to myself a lot," he whispered softly. "Before you guys."

Laxus was only focused on the fact that the yard was so overgrown and, as he walked through the high weeds, he could feel little burrs sticking to his jeans as he went about. His eyes were only across the property though, focused on the heavy wooden doors rather than the broken out windows and the sun chipped paint.

"They said, down in the town," Bickslow went on then, "that they see lights now. Now that those kids woke up the vampires. Ah, man, we shouldda came at night. Just one night. To see. Before we kill 'em. I'd like to meet one, one day, you know, a vamp-"

"I thought," Evergreen complained, "you just spent forever and a fucking day telling us about how you had met one?"

'W-Well, I just meant-"

"You're so full of shit, Bickslow, that-"

"Let me explain! Sheesh, boss, can you believe this? Won't even let a man explain himself. Some people-"

"There is a person!" Freed was rarely one to exclaim, but he had to then, in shock. The others were all focused on the house, but his eyes had drifted, across the yard, over to the big oak tree that grew with little abandon, with no one to trim it. There, at it's base, sat a young teen, staring right over at them. "I bet that's the boy. The one who they have been missing."

"Hey!" Laxus finally spoke as he turned to yell out to the boy. "Kid! We're lookin' for ya. Your family's real worr- He's a runner!"

"On it, boss!" Bickslow took off then, through the high grass, chasing after the kid who only ran around the house, obscuring the others vision. Freed was the next to give chase and Laxus cautioned them as Evergreen only rolled her eyes.

"I told you," she said to Laxus as they stood there and waited for the pair to either come back empty handed or with the teen in tow, "that there were no vampires. Don't you feel silly now? For coming all the way out here?"

Snorting, Laxus only crossed his arms over his chest and waited. Waited some more. Even more. Eventually, he and Ever were glancing at one another.

"Hey, guys?" Laxus called out as he began to walk then, the direction in which they'd run, Evergreen groaning, but not following. "If you can't get him, that's fine! Just come back and we'll go explain down in the village, yeah? Freed? Bickslow? Look, morons, you're not gonna freak us out, so just come on. The sooner we get out of here, the better. This places gives me the damn creeps. Those fuckin' villagers are spooked about something, that's for sure, and I'd really like to not stick around for them to turn on us or something. Who the hell lives like the middle ages? Huh? Didn't even see any damn electricity in the whole damn village. Oil lamps like the stone ages. Something's not right here. Something..."

He was just talking to himself then, he knew, as he rounded to the back of the overgrown property only to find no one there. Not a soul. His blood ran cold and something wasn't right, because they wouldn't have chased the kid into the woods, would they have? Maybe...inside? Turning to look at the back porch, Laxus considered walking up it, to the door there, and trying it, but something else caught his eye.

Cellar doors. They laid raised from the ground, no doubt housing a set of stairs that led to a little basement like room beneath the property. An old mansion like that, having a cellar wasn't too spectacular or anything. But one of the doors was open and maybe the teen had gone down there? And Freed and Bickslow followed? And…

He stood over it then, Laxus did, a sick feeling forming in the pit of his stomach as he did so. He felt transfixed, no longer on finding his cohorts, but rather on climbing those rickety stairs down, deep into the earth, and looking for himself. What was beneath there. It felt like something was calling to him, drawing him deeper and deeper into the darkness and he had a flashlight, pinned to his belt, which he turned on once he got down to the bottom of the stairs. Shining his light all about, he found the landing beneath the stairs just to be empty. The wall before him, however, housed a door, and trying it, he felt his breath jumping out of his breath as the knob turned with the difficulty of age and lack of lubricant.

It was so cold down there. Damp. It was dusty and gross and no doubt at least one venomous spider was hanging on a web somewhere, just waiting for a schmuck like him to come around to infect, but he moved forwards into the new room regardless. It felt mostly empty as well, but there stood, on raised little platforms, three long, wooden boxes. No. Not boxes. He couldn't say what they were because it would freak him out too much, he might panic, but he knew.

He fucking knew.

"Stakes," Bickslow had insisted before they left town for the jobs. "We all need stakes."

He'd whittled them, out of wood himself, the acrobat insisted, and made them both promise to drive them through the hearts of anything they thought didn't have one.

"What," Evergreen had complained, "does that even mean?"

Who knew?

But Laxus did, in that moment, as he approached the three coffins. Shining his light on the center one, he knew what he had to do. Reaching out, his hand fell on the splintering wood and lifted slowly. A body was in there. Slender. Feminine. But just as he was about to shine his light over the face, to get a better look, he felt something behind him.

"Ever?" he asked as he start to twirl around, but no, it wasn't. IN a split second, he could tell it was the teen from before. "Hey, what-"

He struck Laxus, hard, in the back of the head with a blunt object. And then the man saw nothing.

**.**

His eyelids were heavy and he was groggy and the world felt like it was spinning at the man opened his eyes. Laxus could smell something sweet in the air, scented candles burning, soft and delicious and Ever was into that shit. Aromatherapy. She burned all sorts of things in office.

Did he fall asleep at work again?

"Are you awake?" There was a soft sigh of an unknown woman then, from somewhere else in the room, and Laxus felt like his head was pounding. "Good. I've been waiting for some time. And I don't like waiting."

His head lulled to one side then and, as he blinked away the blurriness, he could make out a woman sitting there, on the edge of a bed, a wine glass clutched in one hand as she stared over at him with bright blue eyes.

Her shocking white hair only highlighted just how pale her skin was and had he slept with this woman? Fucking hell, what a pick up. He'd been in a bit of a slump, since his last break up, and even surrounding towns hadn't really produced much for him. His drunk ass had followed home a lot of less desirable, but this...man, this was something even Evergreen would have to admit was pretty damn amazing.

As he moved to raise his hand though, to his forehead, to stroke back his hair and maybe even stand, he found this impossible. Panic filling him then as he tried to move, tried to get up, Laxus found he was chained to a chair and fuck, it all came back to him as the woman only rose, glass still cupped in her hand, and giggled, softly, sweetly, and...and…

"Where the fuck," he growled at her as in the glint of the moon shining in through an opened window, she flashed in a toothy smile, long, pointy fangs and all, "are my friends?"

"Take a breath, my dear. My, don't you just look ferocious when you're angry though?"

He was seething, still trying desperately to break his chains and what the fuck, what the fuck, what the fuck. How was he here? Why was he here? Was this a dream? It had to be, right? He'd hit his head on a beam or something, down in the cellar, yeah, and then...then…

"You have no idea how...happy and pleased you've made me," the white haired woman was telling him then as she only came closer. "Showing up on my doorsteps like this. I would assume it a gift from a god, but then, I'm not exactly friendly with most gods."

"What," he growled as she was before him then, grinning happily down at him, "are you?"

"I'm timeless. Ancient, yet newborn with each passing day. A true beauty. A-"

"_Abomination_." He turned his head when she ran her cold fingers down the coarse stubble that laid along his jawline. "You are an-"

"Hush, my love." She looked away from him then, down at her cup. "There will be plenty of time for such things later. Such spats. Hateful, hurtful comments. It always comes, eventually. Before the end. And I will end you. Look-zus, was it? That's what the green-haired man told me. A gift as well, he will be. A much better servant for the coming decades than that horrible teenager. Ugh. Boys. I need men. Real men. And look, two have just fallen perfectly into my lap."

He spit, Laxus did, hitting her square in the cheek. For a moment, he saw it. A flash of something darker within the white haired woman. But then it was gone and she only reached up to touch her cheek, ghosting her finger tips over the sticky saliva there.

"Oh, my golden dragon." That time, her hand came to run her fingers through his hair and he froze, as she leaned down, the gleam of the single fang she was showing him then, as she turned her head, blinding the man. "Hair like...lightning. I saw you and I just knew. I knew. Deep within myself. I knew that I had to keep you. Laxus. Hmmm. It feels heavy on my tongue. Yoru name. Nice. And heavy."

"If you're going to...eat me," he whispered tersely as he shivered in the cold night air, "then just fucking do it."

And she laughed that time, more than she giggled, removing her hand from his head and taking a step back.

"What exactly do you think you're here for, Laxus?" She went to the window then, staring out of it with a long sigh. "I feel you have misunderstood my intentions."

"You're a...vampire." The word felt childish and foolish, even being presented with all he was.

"If that's the word you choose, sure, I suppose I am."

"Then drink my blood and be done with it."

"I do not mean to...feed on you, Laxus." She huffed some, glancing over at him. "I have not your friends either."

"Fuck you."

"It's the truth." Shaking her head some, she whispered, "I had no intention of harming that boy that came here. Boy."

It was her turn to spit, down on the ground, by her feet. He took stock of her then, Laxus did, from head to toe, from her striking dress to the way it was cut, just right, at the top, to extenuate her...well… It felt gross and weird to be so turned on as he could only really consider his death.

Still, the woman only said, "We stopped hunting them long ago. After my brother's...accident. And I never enjoyed it anyways. Those people. Vile. Inbred. Gross. I hunt far from here and hardly ever come home. Just to check on my siblings. My brother's...accident made it difficult for him to do much. My sister stays and cares for him and they have little desire to mess with those wretched people either. But then they come into our home and what is supposed to be done, I ask you? My sister, Lisanna, she did all she knew to. She didn't feast on his gross, sick blood. She turned him. Into a servant. It's what I've done with your green-haired friend. With him now, I have little need for the teen. Let's just say my last...helper caught a bad break. Your green-haired friend will do just fine."

"Freed…you fucking monster."

"He'll be much happier now, than he would have been, before. As a mortal." She shrugged some. "Smart man, he is. I can always tell. That other one though...that boy...the jester-"

"Bickslow."

"I did not turn him. I had no need."

"What do you mean?"

But she offered no explanation.

"That woman," she went on instead, "she was a tricky one, but my brother will be quite pleased."

"You're sick."

"And you, my love, must learn quickly how to talk properly to your mistress. Least you make me angry."

"Fuck you."

"Oh, Laxus." But her eyes were locked on the moon. "How many days will it take to break you? Not too many, I hope. Else I might get angry."

"Why haven't you turned me?" he asked then and he started shaking again, in his bolted down chair in the bedroom of the sullen vampire. "Like my friends? What the fuck are you going to do to me? Huh? Answer me! You fucking-"

"My brother doesn't mind servants. And my sister...she was still...young, when we became… She has no need for me." She downed the rest of her cup then, the woman did, before turning to look at him fully again. "But even queens of darkness have needs, my love."

Jerking one last time, hard, against his chains, Laxus was spent and, bowing his head, he tried hard not to weep. She made a noise then, int eh back of her throat, before coming closer.

"Oh, poor Laxus." She ran her fingers through his hair again, but he refused to lift his head. He couldn't. "You never should have come here. Yet I am so glad you have."

**.**

He slept uncomfortably through the night and into the next morning. In the light of day, Laxus spent as much energy as he could, pulling at the chains and cursing, but he felt hopeless then and, without any food or water for over twenty-four hours at that point, he felt a bit weak too. Or...had that woman given him something?

When he awoke again, it was to the night, and she was in there once more, the woman. But she wasn't alone.

"-change the linens and there is a river, on the back of the property, for you to wash things in," she was listing to Freed as he stood by, nodding in all the correct places. "And your friend...Bickslow was it? He must be fed. He is not...turned. I do not know if he can be trusted to make a trek out to get himself supplies, so if you would do so for him, this would perhaps be the most helpful. He seems...off. Yet, Lisanna seems quite taken with him. He will make a nice little playmate for her, I think. And...will need you to procure me a specific brand of wine. It is only sold in- Your friend is awake."

They both turned, Freed and the woman did, from where they stood by her dresser. Laxus could only blink though as he felt tears well in his eyes. Freed's however, was void. Dark. Different.

"Freed, man," he whispered softly, "what the fuck did she do to you?"

He glanced to the woman, Freed did, and when she nodded, he only moved forwards.

"Mistress has been kind of enough to grant myself and Evergreen life eternally, so long as we serve her and her siblings faithfully." Bowing to the man, Freed assured him, "There will be no greater joy in my life than-"

"We're fucked, man. Fuck. Fuck. Where's Bickslow? Bickslow!" Laxus throat burned and he turned his head back, yelling at the top of his lungs. "Where are you? Bicks-"

"Oi, boss, what's with all the noise, eh?"

The bedroom door opened then, but it was just out of vision for the man. Still, he heard his voice then, his clear voice, not like Freed's, Bickslow.

"Bickslow." That was a new voice. And in to the room came another woman, the younger sister, no doubt, that the woman had spoken of. "You have to knock. Sis, I'm sorry. He's not very trained yet-"

She just huffed some, the woman did, as she lifted a wine glass from where it sat on the dresser and pressed it to her lips.

"Ah, sorry 'bout that, Ms. Boss." Bickslow came further into the room, his back to Laxus as he saluted the vampire. She merely nodded at him. "See, the main boss here, he's known to get in his head a little bit, yeah? Just give me a sec, and I'll-"

"Bickslow, what the fuck is going on?" Laxus tugged at his chains as he saw another one of them, a white haired vampire, come to peek at him. She was younger than the main one he'd been speaking to. Early twenties at most. She grinned, bemused at him. "Are you insane?"

"Well...yeah, boss, but not about this." He gestured about then, between the two sisters. "There's never been nothin' I wanted more than to meet some real life vampires. Or werewolves. Are those real?"

"They're not," the younger woman answered for him. Then she looked to her sister. "Right?"

But the older merely shrugged, her blue eyes still on Laxus. The golden haired man felt like he was going to faint.

"Well, Lisanna here, she was gonna turn me into her little slave and let me tell you, I bow unwillingly to no man!" But then Bickslow winked. "Willingly though, I found the perfect siblings to bow to. My Ms. Boss over here, my mistress. Queen of the night! Darkness! A what a beauty-"

"Uh, Bickslow." The younger one didn't seem to pleased. "I was the one that was going to turn you."

"Of course, Lissy." And he was quick to nod at her. "The kid here, well, she appreciate it. My jugglin' and jokes. My flips and turns. It's gig, yeah? She says I can be her own personal jester. I'll always be an acrobat at heart, of course, but if only Ma and Pa could see me now. What would they say? Huh? What-"

"You fucking psycho," Laxus growled at him and he would have hit him, if he could, but alas, his chains only felt heavier by the minute. "Bickslow. Fucking sick."

"You do what you gotta do," the man told him then, solemnly, with a shake of his head, "to survive."

"I'm not going to be that way." Laxus dark eyes found the main woman's then. "Like him. Submit to you? Fucking sick. Never. You better just kill me. Or let me go. Whatever. Freed, Ever...they're gone. And Bickslow want sto be here, fine. But just let me go and I'll never come back. I'll never-"

"Boss, you're the lucky one." And Bickslow beamed at him. "Can't ya tell what she wants you for?"

"Lucky?" The youngest, Lisanna, was not feeling the vibe her jester was putting down. "You know, suddenly, I'm a bit hungry-"

"Ah, nah, Lissy, you ain't ever even seen me do a back flip off the upstairs banister out there. Don't ya wanna at least see that first?"

And they were chasing one another out of the room then, Lisanna and Bickslow, while Freed stood by emotionless and the woman, the mistress, only continued to take sips of her drink.

"I won't do that. I swear it. Submit to you. Like a little bitch. You're a little bitch, Bickslow," Laxus growled after the man, but he was long gone. "Pathetic. I'm not pathetic. So just kill me. Do it! Kill me!"

She finished her glass, the woman did, before looking to Freed.

"Leave us, if you will, please," she said simply as he bowed deeply to the woman before doing so. "And draw me a bath, if you would. There's a well on the property. Then heat up the water over the- You understand, don't you? Smart man. I appreciate you so much already."

When he left, Freed drew the bedroom door closed and they were alone once more. Advancing on Laxus, the woman's eyes stayed locked with his and he was going to spit at her again. He wanted to. When she leaned down so that her face was even with his though, he felt something different bubbling up instead of him.

"You," she whispered as, with one hand, she reached to paw at the front of his jeans and, with the other, she moved to stroke at his jawline again, "will do as I say."

He'd heard about it before. The hold that vampires had on the opposite sex. They could control them. Charm them. That's what must have happened to him. Yes. She charmed him. Fucking vampire. Demon. Abomination.

But as he found himself falling into bed with her, his mind didn't feel fogged. It felt clear.

Fucking gross.

The whole thing.

**.**

Awaking alone in bed, Laxus felt wrong and different and his mind was all cloudy, but when his blinked the blurriness away, he only sat Freed, standing there, by his bed.

"The Mistress has left a short list of things for you to do today."

Not his bed. Right. Shit.

"Fuck your mistress."

"Our," Freed corrected and his voice was cool as he stood, hands clasped behind his back, "Mistress."

"What the fuck did she do to you, man?"

He had no answer for him. Instead, the green-haired man merely said, "She wishes for you to go down into the village and inform then that you found their boy. The teenager."

"I can't return him to them as one of her servants."

"He is not any longer."

"What do you mean?"

"He had an accident. In the house. The other teens go spooked and ran away, leaving him there. "

"Freed-"

"You will find him with his neck crushed, downstairs." Turning to walk away, the other man added, "Carry him to the village and tell them there is no vampire. But you will return, to this mansion, afterwards. Tell the villagers you have decided to live here, along with your friends, as a returning the body to them. If anyone causes you trouble, leave. The Mistress will deal with them harshly, should this be the case."

"Fuck that. And fuck you, Freed. Do you hear me?"

No.

Freed would never hear again.

Eventually, Laxus shoved out of bed and stumbled back into his clothes. Then, storming out of the room, he set out to end things, once and for all. But at the bottom of the staircase, he found him there. Bickslow. Just sitting on the bottom step, playing absently with a little pearly white kitten.

"The kid, Lisanna," he explained without being asked, "as a cat that just had a litter. Was never a cat person, but she let me name them. This one is Pappa! Then there's one named Poppo and Puppu and-"

"Bickslow what the fuck is wrong with you?"

"A lot of things, I guess, boss." He sighed some and looked tired as he didn't even glance after the man. "A lot."

"You understand what's happening here, right?" As he got to the bottom step, Laxus only walked around Bickslow before turning to face him. "Freed...poor Freed, but Evergreen is being controlled and...raped. I guess. By these monsters. Do you understand that?"

"He ain't rapin' her, boss. I've seen the brother." Bickslow snorted. "He just cries and sobs about his injury and how great his sister is and all this and that. Lisanna finds him borin' and so do I. Ever just sits beside him all day and listens. I think you're the one that got raped, actually, boss, if we're being technical. The rest of us are just prisoners."

"I didn't… Shut up! And you're not a prisoner."

"Nope," he agreed with a nod, Bickslow did. "'cause I'm the smart one."

"Is that what you think?"

"That's what me and my babies now," he insisted as he nodded over to a box nearby where, when Laxus glanced in it, he found the rest of the kittens snoozing peacefully.

Fucking hell.

He found the body of the teen in the entryway and Laxus felt bad for the teen and what they'd done to him, but he couldn't help him. He hadn't been able to the whole time. But as he stepped over him and walked out the front door of the mansion, he hoped to help the entire world. Rid it. Of the evil.

This time he took the steps down two at a time into the cellar and it was pitch black down there, but he found his flashlight, down on the ground, in the coffin room. Flicking it on, he went to hers first. The Mistress. Threw it open and he was going to drive a stake right through her heart. End this. He had to end this. He had to...he…

Falling forwards, he rested his head, instead, into her chest, burying it there, like he had the night before and he was a goner, he knew. Charmed. Fuck. Fuck. He couldn't do it.

"She will not be pleased," he heard softly from behind him, the voice of what was once his most trusted friend, "if you do not do as asked."

What choice did he have? Being charmed and all.

**.**

They were going on a trip. Him and her. A few days later. The Mistress insisted upon him accompanying her and Freed was going to stay behind, to be certain of things. Lisanna griped some, as she felt like she was being given a babysitter or something, but her sister only insisted and Laxus had yet to meet the brother, but he felt like that was for the best.

"You will meet me," was all the Mistress instructed Laxus, "in Livingston. A town three over. Close to the bay."

"Meet you?" he asked with a frown. "How will you get there?"

But she said nothing and as he set off into the night, he could have sworn her heard the shrieking of a bat overhead.

It was nearly sunrise, when he arrived, and Laxus was at least a bit curious as to how this would all play out, but the Mistress had an apartment there, in town, which she took him to. A coffin awaited her there.

"Freshen yourself up, for the evening," was the one instruction she left him with. "We will be going out."

He had so many questions. A lot of them. Ones that had been tugging at his mind for days at that point. But charmed and all, he could merely do as she asked.

When they left that night, they went even further out, to another town, taking the train there. When they arrived, the Mistress took him to a bar, where she mostly ignored him. Until, eventually, she told him to go rent her a specific room at a specific hotel.

"Wait for me there."

And, well, charmed.

He was sitting at the desk when she came in. With another man. Laxus stared at her in shock and started to protest, as well did the man she was with, but she silenced both before they could even speak.

"He watches." She eve shrugged. "He likes it."

"He what?" the newcomer questions, but she just rolled her eyes, the Mistress did, and whispered something the blond man didn't catch, and in the dim light of only the candles Laxus had lit, per her instructions, he saw the other man's eyes...change. To something different. And the newcomer just nodded, following the Mistress as she led him over to the bed and shoved him right down.

Laxus didn't want to though. Watch. It felt...wrong and gross and he was kind of, maybe, just a little...jealous?

Was that it?

He didn't have long to contemplate it. The Mistress had shimmied out of her dress and the man had only tugged the shirt over his head before she pounced on him and it seemed so passionate, their hungry kisses. As he squared his jaw, Laxus found himself watching with dark eyes.

But something happened, when they broke apart. It looked like she was going back in, for another kiss, but her head missed and when it found his neck, Laxus could only hear the loud wail of pain from the man as, presumably, her teeth sunk deeply into his flesh.

Everything that had happened over the past few days felt sick and made him much the same, but this? This was by far the worst.

It went on for a few minutes. Was this...feed? He was horrified at the thought.

When she finally lifted her head, the bottom half of her pale white face was stained red with dripping, thick, hot blood and Laxus rose, to his feet, frozen afterwards though, as she merely got to her feet herself.

"Once a week," she told him simply, "we shall do this."

"Always," he found his voice, softly, "men?"

"Whatever you'd like, my love."

And he could only nodded, softly, as she wiped at her face with the back of her hands, smearing the blood across her.

The sickness was gone, as bad as that sounded, when she approached and he reached for her, and it was just so good, as they fell into bed together with the lifeless man beside them and he was fucked, he was so fucked, it was all fucked.

"The body..." Laxus questioned, softly, when they left that night, to rush back to the apartment, so she could hide out the daylight hours from the safety of her pine box.

"I have an...arrangement," she offered simply. "Here. With the owner. Do not be jealous, Laxus."

He wasn't sure of the implication (or okay, fine, maybe he was), but still could only nod dumbly and they went along, in the darkness.

The Mistress instructed him to go back home, in the daylight, and she would meet him there. Laxus still felt dazed and almost as if the whole thing was a dream and he could run off, he could have, the whole time. He could have gotten on a different train, walked another way, gone anywhere else.

But he didn't.

He went back to the Strauss mansion just as his mistress commanded.

**.**

"We old money. True," the woman explained as she and Laxus sat together, on the couch in her room, sharing wine under the moonlight, "old money. I laugh now when I hear the term. The old houses, families, all who I knew growing up to rule the world? Gone. Disappeared. Yet we remain. My siblings and I. The last of the Strauss. Of the old days. Mama and Papa were good, hard workers, even with all their riches, and they raised us to be the same. When they got sick, I took over. A woman. A young woman. I was spit on by some, but who laughs now? Everyone else, dead. Their children, dead. Their great-great-greats all dead. For centuries. And I endure."

"How did you..."

"Turn?" She hummed, deeply, softly, before whispering, "It's not a pleasant part of the story. I feel in love. With an older man. He swept me off my feet. In the matter a matter of three days. He came into town, met me, and I was going to give it all to him, right then and there. I did, I suppose. In less than a weekend, he had me in his bed. I was so smitten. I thought it was a lovebite of some sort, at first. But no. You have options, Laxus, with thissort of things. Drain the blood, turn them into mindless little servants or...you can turn someone. And he turned me. How happy he was, with himself. Grinning. 'Now,' he told me, 'you will be young and beautiful forever.' And I have been ever since."

For a long moment, they both sat there. Then, after a sip of her drink, she spoke again.

"Do you have family, Laxus?"

"A grandfather," was all he could offer her. "And...these kids that I kinda helped him take care of."

Nodding slightly without probing deeper, she said, "A shame. I could not leave my siblings behind. I turned them, when I explained to them, and I still ran my business the best I could. From the shadows. The night. I became an eccentric. All three of us did. An interest. Intrigue. It worked for a decade. But...then...why does she not age? Good genes. Old family secret. Another decade. How strange, how odd, the youngest still looks so...young. Another decade and another and we had to move. Somewhere new. Start fresh. We did this for awhile, but it only grew harder and harder and when we returned, eventually, to our family home, it sat alone atop the hill and the village beneath was filled with fearful little creatures, stuck int eh past that we'd long moved on from, my siblings and I. But my, did they make the perfect feeding ground. Who would believe them? That vampires lived atop the hill that overlooked their sleepy town?

"We fade in and out of it. Interest in them. Currently, for the past century, has it been? Less, perhaps? I found their blood revolting and their men of little interest. I must travel to find real men. Usually. But you just stumbled upon me. Found me. I'd say it was fate, but what is fate anyways? A human concept. And I have not been human in many, many moons. I'm a monster now, fine, an abomination. But I didn't choose this. Look at me. Look, Laxus, like I command. Tell me I'm not beautiful? Desirable? What man does not want that? Eternal beauty. But it takes a special man to see passed the power. And the ones who do...they ask me eventually, to do to them what was done to me. To turn them. Do they not understand this curse? This terrible, sick curse? Disgusting. I do away with them quickly. Tell me, you do not wish to be cursed, do you, my love?"

"No," he whispered softly, truthfully. "No, I don't."

"Good." She even nodded as she tossed back some more wine. "You will age, grow, and die. How lucky, mortality is."

"What happened to that man's eyes?"

"Hmmm?"

"In the hotel room." He grit his teeth from the thought. "You told him that I wanted to...watch and he was creeped out, but then you whispered somethin' to him and-"

"Oh. That." She even rolled her eyes. "It's a gift, yes? That glazed over look men get around me. And women, I suppose, if I so choose. A...tool."

"You," Laxus whispered softly as his stomach dropped, "charmed him."

"That's it. Yes. I charmed-"

"I don't have that look."

"Hmmm?"

He rose then, from his seat, and looked all about for a mirror of some sort, but he could find none. Instead, he went to the window and, softly, was able to see his reflection in the pane. "My eyes are normal."

"Yes," she agreed softly, bemused, almost. "Why wouldn't they be, silly?"

"I… The only reason that I'm doing all this is because… Haven't you charmed me?"

"I told you, my little golden dragon. I don't like to keep men around who must be forced to."

"I don't...I didn't… I'm not doing this because I want to. Any of this. You hear me? You've forced me. You-"

"You've done nothing that you've not desired."

"That's not true." Turning to look at her, he saw the disinterest etched on her face. "Look, I...I'm not...evil. I'm-"

"No one is evil. No one is good. We all do what we must. It does not bring me any joy, any pleasure, the things I do. Well, except, of course, for when it does."

"I have to get out of here. I have to. I-"

"You could have," the woman reminded. "I've let you have freewill. And yet you always come back. Why? Laxus? I have no hold over you. It seems like...maybe...you want to-"

"Shut up," he growled darkly and he punched it then, the window before him, slicing up his hand and spraying glass all about outside.

"You just make your friend's work harder," the woman tsked and he shook with rage. "You're so strong. You must continue to train, you know? What were you training for before? Or were you a laborer? It doesn't matter. I like men kind of...brutish. Like you. Eventually, one day, you and I will no longer enjoy one another. And I will be forced to end you. It's all part of the deal, Laxus. You understand. Don't you?All loves come to an end."

"I don't love you."

"Of course you don't. And I don't you, yet, my love." She giggled again and he hated it so much. That giggle. It would haunt his dreams for the rest of his life. "I need you to work tomorrow, on getting the yard in order. I can give you the money, if you need it, to travel out to get supplies. But you will return to me, Laxus, always. You know this, yes? I don't need charm. I will make certain this occurs."

"You've ruined my life."

"I've changed your life, is a better word for it." She hummed that time, getting to her feet to come over to him. "You will learn to like it. The revulsion goes away, with repetition. And tell me, Laxus, will you ever find a woman more desirable?"

He shook his head, slightly, as she moved to grab his wounded hand and bring it up to her lips, pink tongue poking out to run across the slices he had in his fists there. As he opened his mouth, slightly, and seemed at a loss, she only raised her eyes and spoke something to him for the first time.

"Mirajane," she whispered and he could only nod.

"Mirajane."

"We'll be so happy together, I'm sure, Laxus. You have your friends here, to keep you company, and I my siblings. So long as you recall your place, there's no reason for this to not last for a good, long time. Wouldn't you like that?"

No, he wanted to say, but "Yes," fell from his lips and as hers came to be pressed against his, and he should have never come. To that sleepy, old fashioned town. To that Gothic, decrepit mansion on the hill.

But he had.

And now he could never leave.

* * *

**I normally don't do au, but this was a request from over on Tumblr and, well, I went for it. I dunno how I feel about it though. **


	2. Chapter 2

It was a rough adjustment to say the least, going from the freedom of a young man in his twenties with no attachment other than his homegrown business, to the chains of being the only normal person in a household full of abnormality.

Which was putting it lightly.

He was the only one who wasn't a vampire, like the Strauss siblings, a slave to said vampires, like poor Evergreen and Freed, or a complete and utter moron who Laxus was pretty sure had no hangups over all had gone on, like stupid Bickslow. No, Bickslow was riding high as the house 'jester' and kitten father and it was all just so aggravating that sometimes Laxus thought about it.

He could do it.

Kill them.

Really, the only one he wanted to take out with the main one. Mirajane. The Mistress. She was the one that caused all of this. He wondered too if maybe vampires were, like, ants or bees. If he killed their queen, would all the others die? Is that how it worked? Sure, it would be horrible to recognize his own dealings in the death of his two friends, Freed and Ever, but at the same time…

Those...things weren't Evergreen and Freed any longer. He had to keep reminding himself of this fact. It was the truth. Their bodies were just vessels and what happened to them from this point out had no bearing on the souls that had long since departed.

It would be retribution, if anything. Justice. An end to any suffering they might still be facing, trapped within themselves. How could he just sit there and do nothing? Huh? When he was the only one with the opportunity to bring it all to an end?

And yet, as dawn rose each morning, dragging the sun willingly along the sky, he found himself not focusing on how to distract Freed long enough to sneak down into the cellar, where he'd find them all, slumbering the day away, where he could easily drive stakes through each of their hearts.

It would be a blessing, even, he was pretty sure, to the three of them. Was it not a curse? Their immortality? That's what she told him, once, when this all first began. That he was lucky to bear the brunt of mortality.

Then why not just end things?

He figured this had to do with the whole damnation aspect. If that was an aspect. Bickslow insisted it was. But even still, Laxus would find hellfire far more preferable to feasting on the blood of the innocent. Still, he couldn't imagine that Bickslow was enjoying himself as much as he let on either. They were all just surviving with what they'd been giving. Selfishly, sure, fine, but each day (or night) that they continued to draw breath was a win, no matter how dirty the tactics.

Where did that leave him, anyways? Laxus saw himself as an unwilling participant in all of this, but he never left. Or when he did, it was merely to do what had to be done. Gather supplies, assure the locals. That sort of things. He always came back. He wasn't charmed or imprinted on or any of that weird stuff a vampire might do to have a hold over someone. No. He was just…

Going along with all of it.

Fear at first, maybe, had a play in everything, but now he felt little of it. Or at least it wasn't overpowering his senses. Mirajane had been right. Repulsion fled with repetition and he found himself falling into the daily schedule of the Strauss mansion with little hesitance. In a certain kind of way, it wasn't so different from his daily life before that. Manual labor, renovating a decaying mansion in the hot summer.

What a long one of those it would be.

**.**

"Oi, boss, I think one of my little kittens here is sick. Peppe. Look at 'im. Does this look like a normal kitten to you?"

"Bickslow," the man growled as he stood out in the yard, cutting at the shrubbery, "I'm busy."

"Just look at 'im, boss. He looks pale."

"It's a white fucking cat, Bickslow."

"Kitten."

"Bick-"

"Go on then, you bastard," the acrobat was growling suddenly and when Laxus glanced over his shoulder, he saw the man nursing a bleeding thumb. The kitten apparently didn't like being swung around for the blond to see and had either bit or scratched the other man. Tossing him to the ground, Bickslow glared after the feline before looking to Laxus once more. "Kids are so ungrateful. Say, that's actually what I was wondering about."

"I don't give a shit about your cats, man."

"Kittens." Still, Bickslow was quick to follow as Laxus, finished with the bush before him, was stalking off across the yard to the other. "To bad for your woman, you know. Is she still a woman? Your vampire then, eh? Can't see ya all hot and bothered like this. Shirtless. Working hard under the sweltering sun."

"If you're coming on to me, I'm not interested."

"Nah, not me. No way. I'm a single father now, man. That's a lot of work."

"I thought you and Lisanna were taking care of the kittens together?"

"The woman only comes around at night! All day, I toil over my precious babies and she just-"

"You know, man, I'm really fucking busy right now, so-"

"I have a question," Bickslow insisted as they came to a stop before another overgrown shrub. "Okay, look, listen to this. I've been wondering 'cause it keeps me up at night, yeah? Well, among other things-"

"Bickslow-"

"Can vampires reproduce?"

"What? Why are you ask-"

"And if they can, does it gotta be with something else undead? Or can you and the, uh, Mrs. Boss, uh… I's talkin' to Freed about it and we were very concerned. Well, I was concerned. He just sorta sat there and went on and on about all his chores he had to do, but... How can something undead give life to something not? And man, it would suck for you, ya know? Is it your kid or one of the thousand of other guys, she, uh, gets favors from, right? I mean-"

"Would you shut up?" And he dropped the clippers then, Laxus did, as he turned on the man with blazing eyes and Bickslow threw up his hands in defense, nearly falling back over his own feet as he tried to scramble away. "I'm fucking working you absolute-"

"So I'm a prisoner here and I ain't even got free speech?" Bickslow was running across the yard then, away from him. "Well, prisoner in name only. But I got rights, boss! You'll see! I'll bring this up to the kid tonight. You just wait!"

But Laxus didn't think of the man again that night. Or anything, really, as he found yard work to not even be a good distraction from his roaring thoughts.

**.**

They seemed to have some sort of internal clocks that told them when to rise from their shadowy depths, the Strauss siblings did. As sundown changed just slightly with each passing day, he wondered how exactly their bodies knew so well. Perhaps they were just that in tune with the earth?

Regardless, he typically found himself waiting for the Mistress on the couch in her bedroom, where Freed would follow her after the pair made sure her brother was alright and her sister was content, to pour her wine and listen to any daily chores she had until the next sundown.

Laxus would only sit there patiently, usually, for this to occur as he looked everywhere other than his former friend. To see the man now, mindless and void, really gave the blond an ache deep in his heart.

One night after Freed had pour her a glass of wine and bowed his way out of the room, Mirajane only went to look longingly out the window as Laxus couldn't do anything other than stare at her deeply.

"I'm not in the mood tonight, my love," she offered simply, mistaking the gaze for hunger. "For anything."

"I just have a, uh, question." Laxus had never stuttered, really, before he came to the mansion, but he found his words falling over themselves frequently around the woman. Coughing slightly into his hand, he added, "That's all."

"Ask until you are content." She didn't even glance over at him as he rose to his feet. Instead, eyes falling down into her glass, she whispered, "I will answer to the best of my ability."

Nodding, he took a step closer before, with hesitation, finding his feet firmly planted where they were currently. "I was just curious… How is it that..."

"I said you can ask, Laxus." She still wouldn't look at him. She seemed distracted, honestly. Worried. "Not stammer at me."

"Right. I just… You can't get, like, pregnant or some shit like that, can you?"

"What?" That did get her gaze, but the look was one of displeasure. Rolling her eyes so deeply he thought perhaps she'd gone into a trance, the woman finally retorted, "What an idiotic question. Of course not. Who would think such a thing?"

Bickslow.

Still, the man merely said, "I was just making sure, is all. Contraception is kind of a normal thing now. I figure it wasn't back when you were...when...well-"

"You are beginning to bore me, Laxus." Her gaze was out the window again. "Please try and avoid such an occurrence."

Frozen for a moment, he shook his head some as he felt his feet get life again. Advancing on the woman, he stared out the window as well. In the pale moonlight, he saw just as she did, Bickslow doing twirls and jumps for a not visible Lisanna.

"They both enjoy one another," she offered softly, "at least. It's been a long time since Lisanna has had someone to play with. He's a bit...off, but I am pleased with the jester's dedication."

"Yeah," Laxus whispered as she turned then, from the window and him, walking across the room to refill her glass, "dedication."

**.**

"You're always the one that gets to go away somewhere fun," Lisanna griped to her sister early one evening as the Mistress had them all gather in the living area. Even Evergreen and the brother, Elfman, were there. One a brute of a man, the still quite muscular man merely sat where he'd been helped, on the couch, not able to raise his eyes as his sister's bickered. "You don't trust us to do anything anymore. I wasn't the one that got hurt. Elf was-"

"_Silence_." She never raised her voice, Mirajane did, but she had a way of getting the attention of others regardless. As Freed stood at her side and the others sat around on the furniture, Mirajane only addressed them all with a dark gaze. "I have important business to attend to. I except there to be no problems, here at home, while I am gone. You stay out of the sight of the villagers, Lisanna, Elfman, and you both keep up appearances, Freed, Laxus. When I return-"

"Laxus?" Lisanna frowned over at him and even stuck her tongue out. "How come he's staying? Take him with you. I hate when he just looms around the house all day."

"You," the man complained with a glare right back (though he was apprehensive over the brother and downright terrified of Mirajane, Lisanna felt more like the petulant children he dealt with down at the group home), "sleep all day. I sleep at night. Why is that a problem?'

"It's annoying." She could only shrug. "Doesn't feel natural."

"You know-"

"You all behave like children." With a roll of her eyes, Mirajane looked to Freed. "I expect you to keep things in order while I am away. I will return before the end of the week. Should anything occur, you know how to get in contact with me, yes?"

"I," Lisanna complained again, "know what to do if anything goes wrong, Mira. Me. Not them. I'm the whole reason any of them are here!"

"Will you be gone that long?" Elfman finally spoke, voice soft as he raised his eyes some. "Big sis?"

It was with a soft sigh that she went to push her brother's white locks away from his eyes, staring down at him as Evergreen sat beside, looking void and disinterested.

"Never," Mirajane assured her younger brother.

**.**

Laxus didn't understand why he got left behind, but decided to make the most of it. Working all day, sleeping all night. Like he used to. Rather than sleeping in shifts between doing the housework, going to town, and dealing with the Strauss siblings in the evening.

He had his own room, separate from Mirajane's, which he was free to use when she wasn't up to bother with him. Or when she wished to be alone, as she did, some nights. The bed wasn't as comfortable and the room was much smaller, barren, but it suited him and his attitude towards his situation.

One night, sleep was a bit difficult because he could hear Elfman wailing, loudly, in his downstairs quarters, over something or other, and Bickslow was jumping all about the house with his cats. And Freed seemed to have been instructed to wander about, between Mira's siblings, checking up on them. Laxus could hear his slow, methodical steps as he went up and down the stairs periodically, doing as he'd been told.

Sleep was just hard to come by.

Laxus laid with his headphones in, listening to music, and kind of just wished Mirajane would return soon. She seemed to bring balance to the house. Without the Mistress around, everything felt disconnected. No one was really the head of the house and they were all just miserable people, trapped in a mansion together, bringing the misery onto one another.

Just what, the golden haired man found himself fearing frequently, could Mirajane be dealing with anyways? She seemed rather worried over something. Did it have to do with him? And Bickslow? Or maybe Elfman's...accident? Something like that?

Who was she even going to speak with?

And how many others were there? Like them? Int he world? Were the Strauss siblings oddities or a shadowy norm?

Maybe there was a council, he worried then, of vampires. A hierarchy? Just where did the woman fall on that? She seemed rather high and mighty, towards her siblings, who fell in line under her, but did that have to do with birth order? Or some sort of chain of command?

Why did it bother him so much? The idea that the woman, Mirajane, his…Mistress wasn't at the top? Because it did. The idea that there were more powerful, more commanding vampires out there than her really bothered him. And not just because the implication of darkness and evil that had towards the world at large.

**.**

It didn't make much sense to the man at first. What was happening. He'd drifted off some uncomfortably and was a bit dazed as he heard the soft footsteps that certainly weren't the pensive, watchful Freed or the excitable Bickslow. No. They were different.

"Lisanna?" he whispered softly as she slipped into his room. Frowning as he rubbed at his eyes, he asked, "Is everything alright? Is someone here? I'll go take care of-"

"No one's here." She shut the door softly behind her, coming forwards. "It's my home, is it not? Can I not choose where to be inside of it?"

"What?" She was being too confusing for him to be so groggy. "Did you need something or not?"

Btu she was staring at him as the moonlight wafted through his room and it was so bizarre because part of him knew exactly why she'd come, but another part of him refused to acknowledge it.

"Lisanna? Hey, kid, I think I lost one of the kittens again and I'm really worried about him. Have I mentioned to you that he don't look too good? Lisanna?"

She made a face, over her shoulder, before looking at Laxus again and oh shit, he was so fucked.

But not that night, as she slipped back out of the room to go deal with her personal jester. Laxus just sat up in bed for a full minute, shocked, dazed, and filled with dread.

What was he supposed to do now?

**.**

The height of summer was upon them and it was a scorcher out. Laxus decided, without Mirajane there to dictate just what he did with his days, that he would go into town. Not the dumb village though. A real town. To get away from the mansion for a bit.

Maybe...maybe even write his grandfather?

But he couldn't. He thought about it, honest, he did, and even located the location to do so, but he just…

What could he say? After so long? The last his grandfather had heard from him was when he first started renting out that little shopfront, hopeful for the future. He'd always meant to write the man again. To go back again, honestly. With extra cash. To see who was still around and who'd gotten homes. Maybe even offer a job to some of them. Maybe. The kids. The ones that were grown by that point.

It just never came together.

Laxus had found a new family there, for a bit, in his little team. Evergreen and Bickslow could get on his nerves like no other, but they reminded him a lot of the kids in that way. And Freed, well, he could be a bit of a hassle as well, what with his near constant insistence of doing the right thing and being an upstanding citizen and all that. He was a lot like his grandfather.

But now that family was shattered and factored and it would never come all together again. It couldn't. The Strauss siblings made certain of that.

There was a slight fear, as well, or at least a consideration he'd kind of pushed away before, but…

The Mistress had made it quite common knowledge between the two of them that all things come to an end. Though she implied he would age, she didn't necessarily indicate that this would lead to a natural end in their relationship. The opposite, even. She told him that she would be the one to end him.

When the time came.

Now with Lisanna clearly wanting...from him, well, he had a bad feeling that things were going to go south much faster than Mirajane had anticipated.

Laxus caught a drink alone at a bar and plotted this all out in his head.

Lisanna hadn't been too coy, sneaking into his room so late at night, and that meant that she wanted… But Laxus didn't want...well… It was weird. Wtiht he Mistress. He felt such a strong, undeniable attraction for her. Was it the power? The fact that she could completely fuck his entire shit up with a snap of his fingers?

Or just her in general?

Then there was her younger sister. Lisanna. There was nothing wrong with her. At all. She was just...not Mirajane. Yes. And Mira had told him, even, that she had no interest in men. That she was keeping Bickslow more as a pet than anything else. And that seemed to hold up as true, over a month out. Bickslow was entertaining to her and nothing more.

He'd thought this meant that Mira was right. That Lisanna just wasn't looking for the same thing that she was. But apparently not.

It didn't matter how many beers Laxus downed. He couldn't wash away the feeling that this was going to end poorly for him. Imagine it. Having a super hot girlfriend who goes away for the week and then bam! Her sister is throwing herself at you. You know if you go for it, your girlfriend will eventually find out about it, and 'end' you, like she threatened, but if you don't…

Well…

Then you'll get your blood sucked out in a violent manner by her equally as scary and powerful little sister.

Imagine it.

Laxus could.

It's why he decided not to go home that night.

**.**

"Where were ya last night, boss?" Bickslow yawned to the man in the middle of the afternoon when Laxus arrived back at the place. He hesitated some, when he found the guy waiting for him on the front porch, but Bickslow had something else on his mind than true worry over his friend. "My kitty ain't well! It's-"

"Shut the fuck up, Bickslow. Moron."

Freed seemed interested in Laxus absence, but made little mention in it other than informing him he should not be gone, at night, when the Mistress is about.

"Well, she ain't, is she, Freed?" he grumbled some to the mostly vacant stare of the man he once considered his best friend.

Still, he took heed of this and decided to be around that night, just in case the woman showed back up.

He didn't sleep in his room though. No. He slept in Mirajane's, with the door locked, completely sealed off from the others. He was answering no knocks or inquiries. Just going to put his headphones in and zone out from the entire world. If this bothered Mira, should she arrive home that night, so be it.

It wasn't like she'd kill him over it.

But she might if she found him in bed with her sister.

No. Things were just best if Laxus kept to himself and avoided Lisanna all together until Mira got back and then...then…

Well, he wasn't sure then what. A few days removed, he wasn't even certain he'd read Lisanna's intentions correctly. It was late and he was tired and maybe...maybe his ego was just getting in the way of logical thought. Yes. Maybe. Possibly.

Lisanna was just messing around. Or did want something. Probably to find Bickslow. Yeah. She was looking for him and then there he was and that was that.

Right?

Right.

Obviously.

The sleep was still uncomfortable, but he found it much preferable to the worried one he'd had the previous two nights.

**.**

There was a certain sense you got, unilaterally, when you felt someone's eyes upon you. It wasn't even supernatural. Just a sense people got, a feeling. It had nothing to do with the powers that the Strauss siblings possessed.

And yet, it felt enhanced, somehow, when it came to them. His blood would run cold, if he was walking around the property at the exact post-dusk moment they came out of their cellar. Could literally feel the Mistress' eyes across the sprawling property. Knew when they were on him. When they spied him, out late at night, in a storm, trying to track down damn kittens as she watched from her window.

He found Lisanna had the same power.

His snores turned to slight, chilly shakes as he peeked his eyes open and found her there, in the bedroom with him. He was confused for a moment and then only glared.

"How did you get in?" he griped, softly, whispered, really. He didn't want Freed or Bickslow poking around. None of this could get back to Mirajane. Not an ounce of it.

Lisanna was standing there, at the foot of the bed, just staring. She didn't do pensive or alluring as well as her sister, but still, as she nodded over to the forever open window, Laxus wanted to ram a palm into his face.

Of course.

Fucking vampires.

That explained his cold, anyways, as he shivered some in the night air that was being let in.

"You should never lock her door, anyways," Lisanna told him before her eyes and gaze turned to something more...devious. "Unless, of course, you plan to put it to good use."

She literally jumped into bed with him and Laxus didn't know what to do. At all. He'd never had a problem such as this (as he fell more into the Strauss web, he found that was true of most things) and wasn't sure what to do as the woman literally moved to grab his face and fuck, fuck, fuck.

"Lisanna." He turned his head when she tried to kiss him. "Kid. What are you doing? Me and your sister-"

"Mira can't have everything. And I'm _not_ a kid."

"Okay, okay, you're not a kid, but fuck, we can't-"

"Why not? Huh?" She was still holding onto his face and Laxus didn't know how petrified his face looked in that moment, but all of him was feeling it. Lisanna had clearly lost it and either she was going to fucking have her way with him (super nope) or she was going to fucking kill him, he just knew it. All that month of figuring things out with Mirajane had just be some sort of cosmic gift. Here, you can dabble in your darkest of fantasies before they're ripped from you. Just like your jugular will be, in your bitter final moments.

It felt fitting, to have that happen. You fuck a vampire, you get fucked up by a vampire.

Yeah, it was hard not to find justice in this outcome.

"It's because of _her_ isn't it. My sister. You're in love with my sister, aren't you?"

"W-Well, I don't use labels and-"

She growled some, Lisanna did, and her nails felt like claws as, in the moonlight, he was forced to stare into her eyes.

"Mirajane treats me like a fucking child and I'm not. I can do whatever I want."

"Look, I fullheartedly support you in this endeavor and all, but I'm not just whatever, okay? Now would you please-"

"You're going to do as I want, Laxus. I'm just as strong as her. What? You think just because I didn't turn Bickslow, I can't turn anyone? I can. I will. If I want you, I'll have you."

"Your sister-"

"Isn't here."

"Yeah, but… You're not a kid, Lisanna, fine, yeah, you're what? A billion years old?" He felt more panic for some reason, in this moment, than he had when he was chained to the chair, all those weeks back. "But to someone like me, you're still-"

"I was twenty-two when I died. That is _not_ a kid."

"Yeah, but still. I'm, uh, into, you know, a different kind of-"

"I don't care what you're into." And besides, she seemed to already be over the whole sleeping together thing. No. Now her eyes fell only to his neck. "I'm going to turn you into my slave. My servant. That'll teach her. I'll make her favorite little plaything mine and then she'll know. She'll- Ow!"

She nails left long, bleeding scratches on his face when Laxus finally found it within himself to shove her away. He could somehow reconcile all the other stuff, but turning him would mean effectively ending his life. Remove any chance at battling back. No.

He would _never_ allow that to happen. Not even through the Mistress.

"Lisanna?" Someone was trying the door then. Freed. "I must gain entry to assure you safety. Please, if you can-"

"Fuck off, Freed," Laxus growled as he'd merely tossed Lisanna to the side, on the bed. She was hardly hurt, honestly, more surprised, and as that faded from her gaze, he knew he was about to be in for a battle. "Don't ya gotta follow my command too?"

Nope.

"I will locate a key."

Shit.

Jumping out of bed as Lisanna tried to pounce on him again, Laxus bashful, at first, to be in only his boxers around what was kind of, fine, okay, his girlfriend's little sister, but then he remembered why this was the case and, well, embarrassment went out that perpetually open window a long time ago.

"You'll pay for that." Lisanna's voice was low and Laxus considered then that this could have been all over a long time ago if Lisanna would just charm him. She clearly had no interest in the will of him, the flesh, like Mira had proclaimed to, so it made little sense for her not to just go that route.

Unless…

"You're not as strong as your sister."

"What are you talking about? Of course I am. I-"

"You don't possess the same powers as her, do you?" He was standing there, defensively, one hand held out in front of him, as if to stop her should she advance further. He wasn't so certain she couldn't immediately overpower him though (Bickslow insisted vampires had immense strength) and did this more out of a reflex. A false sense of control. As Lisanna glared from the bed, he almost felt like he had the upper hand. "Mira's, like, what? You and your brother's commander? Or something? Is that it? I've never even seen the two of you hunt on your own. Mira goes out and hunts for herself and then brings the two of you back small animals to feast on. I've seen it. I've helped Freed clear the animal traps. You and your brother aren't powerful and don't need real, human, blood. Or at least as much blood as she does. Is that it? Or does she keep you powerless that way?"

"You have no idea," Lisanna told him darkly, "what you're talking about."

Well, honestly, she was right. But still, he held fast.

"You can't do all she can and make you so jealous, doesn't it?" He felt embolden by distance. "I get it, okay? But fucking me…or eating me...or anything dealing with me, won't make her take you seriously. It'll just get me kicked out of her. Or worse. So rebel some other way, alright? That doesn't involve-"

The sound of a key in the ancient lock stopped them and Laxus glared over at it. Freed though, who merely blinked at them, was not even close to the worst thing behind it though.

"Boss, you fucking snake!"

Bickslow tackled him, full on, to the ground and you know what? Laxus had had a lot of rage recently, since the whole thing began, and yeah, as they began to fight, he let some of it go. He was more powerful than the other man and was beating him handily as Lisanna only sat by yelling at them and Freed seemed uncertain of what directive he should take next.

There was no end in sight, honestly, and Laxus might have killed Bickslow that night, he was so charged up from his nearly two month long ordeal at that part, and you know what? Yeah, Bickslow did share some blame in the whole thing. Yes, he was essentially doing as Laxus, just going along to get along, but fuck if it didn't feel much more like the other guy was betraying him. Them. The whole human race, honestly.

Being around the darkness for so long had muddled Laxus' sense of right from wrong and whatever happened that night, he;d more than convinced himself wasn't his fault. Anything that happened from that point forth wasn't his fault. He was a pawn filled with freewill, but uncertain how to wield it any longer, and this was just the inevitable outcome.

**.**

She entered through her window, transforming ins uch a blink of an eye that it would have appeared, were anyone watching something other than Laxus' pounding his close friend into the ground, as if she came from thin air.

"_What_," stopped all motion in the room as she merely stood there, blue eyes not so bright in that moment, "_is going on?"_

Bickslow was bruised and bloodied, but as Laxus found no words before the woman, the jester did.

"Laxus tried to sleep with Lisanna!"

"The fuck I did." He got off Bickslow then, eyes dark as he glared over at the youngest Strauss. "She tried to…have her way with me! And then these two burst in-"

"They're mortals!" Lisanna fell onto the defensive easily. "I can do whatever I wish with them. You don't get dibs, Mira, on someone you won't even turn. You-"

"_Out_." She really just hit an ungodly octave, the woman did. Breathing harshly through her nose, her eyes fell to Laxus. "Except you."

Freed had to assist Bickslow in even getting up and he was upset, the other man was, about...about...fuck if Laxus knew, but as Lisanna only sent him a dirty look for some reason, he decided he didn't care. About any of them.

"Mira," he tried, but she huffed as the others left, moving passed him and over to her dresser instead. Waiting there was a bottle of her specified brand and, as always, a clean wineglass.

"The only good thing out of the lot of you," she complained as she poured it for herself, "is Freed."

"She came onto me. I-"

"If you cannot control them, Laxus, then why should I leave you in charge?"

"Control- She's a fucking vampire! You're all fucking vampires! God, why are you all just acting like this is normal shenanigans? It ain't! Your fucking sister just tried to...to...rape me, fuck, I guess, and then kill me when I didn't comply. But you're mad at me?"

She had her back to him and merely took a long sip from her glass before replying, "I'm not mad at anyone. I'm annoyed."

"I'd really appreciate it, Mira, if you were at least a bit mad at your sister over all this."

"Lisanna is acting out. Lashing out. It's normal."

"Stop calling all of this normal. That's literally what I just said. Are you not listening to me?"

"I expect," was all he got back in response, "you to handle yourself while I am gone. I do not want to arrive home to messes."

"I didn't try and fuck your sister, Mira. She wanted to fuck me. Are you not the least bit concerned about that? You know, I've had to adjust a lot, a whole fucking lot, for your family, and you're yelling at me because no one said that I would have to be fucking both of you. Is that the game now? I have to fuck your sister too? If that's what you want, Mira, then-"

"Stop yelling."

"Is no one going to fucking acknowledge how hard I'm working? Constantly? To figure this shit out? Then your sister just throws herself at me, your brother has been sobbing for days, you've been gone, Freed is fucking weird, I don't even get to see Ever, and Bickslow, fucking Bickslow, won't shut up about his cats and then comes in here and attacks me for what? Huh? For possibly sleeping with someone who he's not? What kind of sense does that make? And, by the way, your sister clawed the fuck out of my face. Thanks for asking."

Mira turned to face him then, fully, lowering her drink down to her side. "My sister doesn't...want you, Laxus. This will pass. She's just jealous and threatened. She's putting you in your place. You denied her. It's done."

"I don't feel like it-"

"Hush."

"She's fucking-"

"_Hush_."

His lips shut and his jaw felt locked as the woman only went to the bedroom door. Calling for Freed once it was opened, she requested a wet rag and stood there until it was presented to her. Laxus was confused, but she merely locked the door once more before coming over to him.

"Wash yourself. You are covered in both your and his blood," she said, handing it off to the man who accepted it numbly. "And do not come into my chambers again, if I am not present. And do not look so betrayed. I will speak with Lisanna as well."

The house met with an uneasy silence then and, as he ran the rag over himself, Laxus was aware of the distraction in the woman. It was written all over her face.

"Why did you go away?"

"A meeting."

"With...what? Like a meeting between...vampires?" His fears (or was it more of a desire) were coming true. "You all get together and what? Discuss your favorite blood type?"

"I see you're coming off your anger well."

"Your sister tried to-"

"But she did not." She brought the cup to her lips once more after adding, "Get in bed, my love."

He didn't want to, not really, but had already pressed his luck with one of the siblings that day. There was a serious doubt it would hold true twice.

When he wasn't joined, Laxus only snorted, staring over at her. "You must have something major going on, in your little abomination world, huh?"

That did it.

Softly, into her cup, the woman giggled, airy and light.

"You," she informed him simply, "have no idea."

**.**

Needless to say, the next morning was awkward for Laxus and Bickslow. The acrobats face was all black and blue and his lip was split and oh, wow, there was something a lot more pressing going on.

After avoiding one another for most of the day (if they were honest with themselves, they both mostly slept til noon anyways), it was nearing the time for the siblings to come out of their cellar when it happened. Bickslow found Laxus sitting under a tree outside, listening to his music. In his arms, once more, he clutched one of his little kittens.

"He's," the seith told him and he looked more distraught then he did when he thought the boss was bonin' Lisanna, "sick."

Laxus could tell. Part of him felt bad for the little guy, who was breathing shallowly and was probably infected with who knew what, considering the conditions under which he was living. This presented another huge problem, of course, that wouldn't be addressed in that very moment, but as Laxus tried to figure out how he'd delicately break it to Bickslow that, considering the rinky dink village had no vet, they'd probably have to break the kitten's neck out of pity, he also realized the other kittens were no doubt infected with the illness as well.

"What's wrong?"

Lisanna was the first into the house, finding the two men sitting down on the entryway floor, the little kitten laid on a towel there as Bickslow gently stroked at his tummy, hoping to soothe any of his pains.

"We're, uh, wain' for ya, is all, I guess," he whispered softly. "Boss is gonna have to...well… You gotta say goodbye to 'im, kid."

Her eyes widened, Lisanna did, and she looked tearful as her brother only came to stare down as well. Laxus didn't feel too comfortable around the other guy yet and thought about ditching out then, giving Lisanna and Bickslow a moment alone with their kitten (and psyching himself up to, you know, kill a defenseless creature; tall talk from a vampire fucker, but that was different), but just as he was rising to his feet, the muscular man was bending down.

"What- Elfman!" Lisanna hit him as he moved to grab the tiny cat in his massive hands. "What are you- No! Mira! Stop him!"

She was the last in the house, Freed faithfully by her side, and frowned at the scene before her. But it was too late for the cat as her brother was already bringing his fangs down into the beast. Bickslow couldn't help it. He'd been the best sorta prisioner, sort of hire entertainment possible, but this was just too dark for him.

"What the fuck, bro?" he yelled, but Elfman only stood to his feet after retracting his fangs from the neck of the feline.

In all the commotion of the room, they heard a faint, "Meow."

"I turned him." Elfman sniffled some as he moved to set the kitten down. "He'll, uh, never grow up. He'll be a baby forever. But he won't die now, Lisanna."

She was sill down on her knees, wiping at her eyes, but did blink some.

"Why didn't I think of that?" she whispered softly to herself as the kitten ran off, no doubt to find it's siblings. "I'm so stupid."

"You are not." Mira was walking on then, Freed following. 'But we are going to have a conversation. Now."

"Hey, man, with the kid busy," Bickslow began as Lisanna groaned some, but followed faithfully after her sister, "Elfman, buddy, pal, you think you could, uh, you know...turn all my other kittens?"

"They'd never grow up," the other man pointed out. "And they would have to come down to the cellar each morning, with us. And they will only drink-"

"Hey, man, as a single father, I'd love to get rid of them for twelve hours a day."

With the evening's big hullabaloo already solved, Laxus felt a bit lost in the shuffle. Instead of seeking out Evergreen in Elfman's absence (who he imagined would be much like Freed; a useless shell that merely made him sad), he went back outside, to the tree he'd sat beneath before, and put his headphones back in.

But he felt it, all the same, when the evening wind picked up, and Laxus didn't have to stare up at the specific window to know she was there, watching him, glass in hand. Waiting. Thinking. _Lurking_.

As he leaned back into the tree, ignoring the urge to to her, up in her room, to be with her, he merely shut his eyes and tried to drift away. Pretend he was back home. In his tiny apartment he and Freed shared, just listening to music and thinking about this strange dream he'd been having lately.

A nightmare, really, it was.

* * *

**A requested second part. I think though that any requests outside of this one, I'll just be posting solely on Tumblr. So if you have any (or want to see any that others have), look for them there. Over here, I'll be getting back to Monster Gauntlet next (and Crush, I guess, if anyone cares about that). **


	3. Chapter 3

"What are you doing?"

"Ain't it obvious, boss?"

"I'm not your boss, you fuckin' turncoat."

"Ooh, cut me deep there, boss."

Bickslow and Laxus both stood there, together, in the sunny rays of the bright late summer morning, the latter glaring as the former beamed down at him from one of the many, mature trees that existed on the property.

"I'm experimenting," the acrobat offered eventually.

"With what?"

"I tumble out of the tree, see? Like this? And do a little flip and- Oh, man! Boss! That fuckin' hurt!"

"What the fuck is wrong with you?"

Bickslow, who'd fallen rather harshly down onto the unforgiving ground, gasped breath back into his body. It was only after this he was able to get out, "A lot of things. Boss."

"She's not gonna wanna fuck ya, you know."

"I think I'm concussed."

"You can jump and flip off the tallest buildings around," the golden haired man went on, "and it won't matter. She sees you as a puppet, man."

"Boss, I think my brain is bleedin'."

"She ain't into you. You need to just get over it and stop trying to kill yourself on her behalf."

"Is my leg supposed to bend this way?

"Ignore me if you want, moron, but I'm telling you the truth." He frowned down at the other man, lording over him as he stood by. "Lisanna isn't interested in you. And if you are her, then you're fucked in the head; she's demented. They're all demented. This whole situation is demented, Bickslow."

"Why are there so many stars out during the middle of the day?"

"Alright, man, I warned you," Laxus grumbled as he turned then, to walk away. "Fucking idiot."

Sitting up then, Bickslow only rubbed tenderly at his head as he watched the older guy's retreat. To his back, he called after him, "Oi, boss, tell me somethin', huh? I'm fucked in the head, fine, sure, for wanting that. But what does it make you? When you feel the same way about the Mistress?"

But Laxus only walked on, back to the other side of the yard, to get back to tending to the flowerbeds.

**.**

It was unnerving at times, to think about. His current predicament. Laxus found it best not to think about it, honestly, which sounded hard, but it was actually far from it. While it felt as if thought had to go behind engagement, he found most of his actions slowly became more of an autopilot than they were active thought.

He couldn't consider why he was trapping live animals and leaving them for his girlfriend's siblings to devour (or whatever the fuck they did to them; he didn't think about that either). And did he have a girlfriend? Did he? In more than just simple label only? Why worry about that? Why think about it? Why even consider it? None of this matter. It wasn't worth it to ponder what it was that the Mistress did when she left, once a month, to tend to things that were none of their concerns. It wasn't his job to worry about anything other than tending to the grounds and fixing up the house. He wasn't meant to know about Elfman's accident or attend to Lisanna's very clear instabilities.

Nope.

The perpetual hell that they were all toiling in together had nightmarishly grim implications, but if you just focused on the immediate, such as his daily grind of work and nightly, well, different kind of grind, then it got a bit easier.

Maybe.

"I dunno why I'm even talkin' to ya, man. I know you're not in there. Not really." Laxus sighed as he sat on the porch steps beside Freed, the other man looking on with a void look out at the setting sun. "I guess I'm just...lonely. Kind of. A house full of people- Well, whatever the fuck you all are. And I'm all alone. Feels like the group home all over again."

Laxus slung back some of the beer can in his hand with a frown as Freed blinked some, when a fly lazily landed on his cheek. Reaching over, Laxus shooed it off, but this only depressed him further.

"I always thought I'd live somewhere nice. A big house. A woman. A real woman. A woman that was down for whatever I was. Ride or die shit. You know? And I'd have a family. A real family. Not like Gramps and all those kids I left, back home. No. They all cared for one another, but not me. No one cared about me. I thought… I thought that I found it. Somewhat. With you and Ever and… But now that's done. It's over." Laxus took another chug, but it burned on the way down and he wished it was something stronger. "You guys are gone. You and Ever. And Bickslow...that snake, I should have never let him in. Fuck. Fuck! See that, Freed? I can yell into the abyss and get nothing, but silence back. Why do I keep coming back here? Huh? Why?"

He turned to look at him then, the green haired man did, just to tell him quite plainly, "I must prepare for the Mistress' arrival. Excuse me."

"Yeah, man," Laxus sighed into his beer. "Whatever."

**.**

"Bickslow's into your sister."

"Who?"

"The jester."

"Oh, yes, him." She hardly seemed concerned, at the moment, merely lying there beside him, stroking absently at his abdomen while staring at the clock across the room. "I do not fid him funny. Not particularly. But Lisanna insists-"

"He's going to kill himself, trying to impress her. He thinks if he jumps off a high enough thing, it'll make her want to fuck him."

"You're vulgar," she remarked, regardless of the fact that, the night before, he'd watched her feed on a young woman quite violently in the sanctity of their hotel room. "My dragon."

"Why do you call me that?"

"Hmm?"

He sat up, much to her displeasure, but not his own, as it finally gave the woman a good excuse to do something other than be draped over his chest. Shoving out of bed, she went to claim a glass of wine which he watched with something close to interest, givne her state of undress.

"Why," he continued on, watching her pour one for herself and only herself, over at her dresser, "do you call me a dragon?"

He liked her ass, a lot, but didn't mind it much when she turned to face him as he only allowed his eyes to drift back up to hers.

"It is what you remind me."

"A dragon?" When she nodded, he insisted, "But how?"

"The Golden Dragon. Do you not know the tale?" At the shake of his head, she sighed some, bringing the cup up to her lips. "Perhaps the tale is lost to time. It was a favorite, of my brother, when we were young. My father would tell it- So many decades, centuries have gone by, and yet I can still hear it, in my head, the way he would tell the tale…"

Laxus said nothing now, as she came back to him in bed, cup in hand. But she didn't lay beside him once more, rather, sitting on the end of the bed, shaking her head some as she took another sip of her wine before continuing.

"Dragons," she began softly as his gaze stayed trained to the back of her head, "are mysterious creatures, no? No one knows from whence they came or how they wind up back there. They live in mountains and caves, secluded and alone. For hundreds upon hundreds of years, perhaps, even. All alone. When are they born? How do they reproduce? No one is aware. How could they be? Dragons exist because they wish to.

"It is much the same for the Golden Dragon. All alone, he lived, for so long time forgot, atop a mountain. Perhaps it would have always stayed this way, had the man not ventured to the top of the mountain one day, on chance. For on good reason, truly. Maybe adventure. Maybe treasure. But something called him, all the way from the base of the mountain, to climb to the precipice, to the barely visible cave, hidden among the clouds. A dangerous journey, but it would not be in vain. There awaited him no treasure and the adventure was far more harrowing than expected, but inside that cave laid the most magnificent beast he'd ever laid his eyes on. Golden scales for as long as the eye could see, shining, shimmering, truly, by the light of his torch, blinding and dazzling, all belonging merely to a long tail. Following it, he would be lead to where the dragon slumbered growing larger the further down the cave he walked. A foolish man he was, of course, for many reasons up to this point, but there he stood, in the midst of a slumbering dragon.

"A wise man would have run. Turned around and never came back. Never looked back. But we have already established, yes, this is far from a wise man. He thought, for his troubles, perhaps he could take just one, single large scale that littered the body of the dragon. There was one, in particular, that looked loose, almost, and if he could just rip it from the flesh of the dragon and run, from the cave, why, the dragon would not even have time to turn around! And then he could carry that shard of gold into town, or perhaps a bigger one, and sell it for a high price. A victory after such a harrowing journey.

"Well, when he stepped forwards, to rip the scale from the beast, he found it was just out of his reach, high up on the back of the dragon. So he clambered up the sleeping dragon with little abandon, hoping to rip the scale from the dragon. But this, of course, woke the dragon. Startled, he called out in the man's own native tongue, questioning just who had entered the cave with him. Dumbstruck, the foolish man answered honestly. All it would take, in such a precarious state, was for the dragon to perhaps roll this way or that, in the cave, and he could squish the man against a wall, killing him. But he did not do this. Instead, he questioned the man on his intentions, the lonely dragon did, and the man told him, simply, he'd gotten a strange desire he could not explain, to venture into the cave. As if something was calling for him.

"'It was I,' the dragon insisted, excited, even, perhaps. 'I have waited a century, it feels like, hoping for assistance. I have wedged myself in this cave and am unable to free myself. The only sustenance I have is the unfortunate livestock who ventures into this cave, from the opposite entrance. You must help me. It was why you were sent, surely.'

The man considered this before questioning the dragon, to be certain he could not move. He could not. In the slightest. As he awaited some sort of plan from the man, as to how he could free himself from his predicament, he felt a searing pain as a scale was ripped right from his body before a blade was plunged, over and over again, into his now exposed flesh. With his job done, the foolish man took his prize of the dragon's scale and started back down the mountain while the dragon found his end."

For a long few moments, they both sat there. Then, softly, Laxus whispered, "What the fuck does that have to do with me?"

"No one can help you with your life's questions, Laxus." She stood again, to refill her glass. "It is plain as day, what you wish for. All your hopes and your dreams; you carry them in your eyes. No one is coming to save you. You will always be this alone. We all will."

"Maybe," he whispered then, "I'm the man. You think of that?"

"Think of what?"

"I'm the foolish man who found himself stuck up in a damn cave with a dragon, but oh, I'll get it when it's least expecting it. I'll get it. I'll end it. You think of that? Mirajane?"

"I think of all things, Laxus." She slipped on a robe as she headed then to the door of the bedroom, to leave him. "How do you think I've survived this long?"

"I dunno," he whispered after her, knowing she was off to converse with one of her siblings or Freed. "Why don't you ask the dragon?"

But hadn't she?

**.**

Laxus was kind of beat, one evening, as he stretched out on the couch in the Mistress' room. She was off, somewhere in the house, going over something with Freed, and he was actually kind of glad for that. It had been a hard day for him, carrying supplies up to the old house on the hill as well as repairing some stuff around the property, so not only was he sore, but also chalk full of splinters.

The man just wanted to snooze his life away.

He was doing just that when the door, which Mirajane had left ajar, was nosed open a bit and through his dreams, he first heard the soft mewing of a kitten before feeling the pounce of it's little claws on his chest.

"Hey," he grumbled slightly, peeking an eye open at the once cute, not abominable feline. It dead eyes shone in the darkness. "I don't think you're supposed to be in here."

But the cat was purring as he stroked one hand down its back and, well, it felt kind of nice, rumbling a bit against his chest, and what would it hurt? As his eyes drifted back to nothingness, he figured nothing.

When Laxus was awoke sometime later by Mirajane, the cat was gone and it was just as well. He didn't rather like them anyways. Cats. Or animals in general. The more he was having to capture small critters for the feasts of Lisanna and Elfman, the less he was liking living things in general. Much like his current predicament, it was much easier to just separate himself entirely from the concept of life, even. Human life as well. He was becoming more and more desensitized to the slaughters that Mirajane partook in and, though at one point, he considered himself an unwilling participant, he was beginning to feel more like a disinterested accomplice.

The kittens were Bickslow and Lisanna's domain. Laxus wanted as far from that as he could get. Still, a few night later, when one was mewling at his feet while he walked about the house one night, he did find himself leaning down to pat at his ear.

"You're the same one," he whispered, noting the little discoloration he had, behind his ear, "from the night before, aren't you? You think we're buddies now? Pals? Fuck it, I guess. Maybe we are. You're the only one I got now. In the entire world. Don't take it for granted, okay?"

The kitten took it very seriously, actually. He followed Laxus about, at night, and when the Mistress was out, would typically be found snoozing in the room the man kept for himself. Mirajane didn't seem to fond of them, the cats, and barred them from her chambers for the most part.

"Vile. Disease ridden." She would only shake her head, when she saw one about in the evening. To Laxus, she was explain, "They exist only to please my sister."

And that they did. Bickslow as well. They both seemed rather intent on being the best surrogate cat parents the kittens could have. This was necessary given that, once the mother cat sniffed them, that first night after they were turned, she seemed to want nothing to do with them. It was just as well; she was really cramping Bickslow's single father of five vibe.

So was Lisanna, but she was allowed to ruin whatever she wanted in the man's eyes.

He named them, each one, Bickslow did, but Laxus couldn't remember them. They were so dumb. But the little one that took a liking to him, he decided was deserving of his own name. A real name. A special one. To signify his importance over the others. He had humble beginnings, as Poppo or Pappa or Peppe or whatever the fuck his real name was, but he was a nice man now. Reborn as Laxus' only true friend.

What an accomplishment.

"I'll call ya," he hummed one night as they sat under the cover of the porch as a storm waged just inches from them, thunder booming in the distance, "Raijin. How ya like that? Huh? Do you feel more powerful? On nights like tonight? I know I do."

He only held the kitten against his chest though, waving a finger lazily in its face as it blinked up at him.

"It's good, I guess," Laxus whispered to little Raijin softly, "to know there's at least someone in this house I can trust."

**.**

"Why can't we have mirrors?"

"Who told you that you could not have a mirror?"

"No one," Laxus whispered one night as he laid in bed with the Mistress, her toying with his hair as he rested his head in her breasts. "I just thought-"

"I have no need for them, so I do not keep them."

"Way to be humble."

"What?" Her toying stopped. "I no longer have a reflection. What use would a mirror be?"

"Oh, I thought you meant..."

"Yes?"

"Nothing, I was just-"

"There are many rules," she sighed softly then, "to this curse. Most are unpleasant."

"Like you drown, right? If you go down to the river?"

"What?"

"Running water?"

"I cannot drown."

"Have you ever tried? I'm pretty sure you drown. Or at least Bickslow said-"

"Bickslow." She practically spat his name. "I am not fond of him."

"Yeah, I've noticed."

"I thought he would provide entertainment for my sister," she said with a bit of a huff, "but he is turning out to be more of a nuisance for me. I am beginning to wonder if I should start taking longer, further trips once more. I was fearful of the villagers, leaving them here alone with my siblings, but the seem to have settled out now that you are around. Freed is here, to keep peace, anyhow. Yes. Away from this place more. I enjoy the idea."

His silence was noted though and, as her fingers ran once more through his hair, the woman merely remarked, "You could come along if you wished. Barring extenuating circumstances, of course."

"Of course," he whispered into her flesh as he shut his eyes tightly. "Are you gonna leave soon? To talk to your siblings? Or Freed?"

"I do have other things," she reminded softly, "to deal with. I do not exist merely to sleep with you, dragon."

"Is that my only purpose to you?"

"You also get supplies and care for the lawn."

He frowned up at her, but in the moonlight, he caught it. Something of a grin tugging at her pale lips. Maybe. Or he might just be drunk.

Laxus felt like everyone in the house was constantly in some state close to that.

"Bickslow," he told the woman softly then, "doesn't mean any harm. Honest."

"Perhaps not." the crown of his golden head got a kiss before she began to detangle her limbs from his. "But the foolish rarely do."

**.**

He felt eyes on him before he even opened his own. As he blinked away the sleep, he was dismayed to find them to belong to the lesser of the two Strauss sisters. Laxus sat up some, in bed, planning on telling her flat out to get out because he wasn't interested. Mirajane was gone, once more, alone, to deal with 'business' as she called it. Whatever. He just knew he was not about to deal with her creepy sister trying to force herself on him again.

"I'm not here for you," she retorted before the words even left her mouth. Standing there in the dark doorway of his bedroom, she raised a single pale finger, aimed at the snoozing ball of fur rested on the man's chest. "I want Puppu."

Puppu. Of course.

"Why?"

"They need to eat."

Oh. Yeah. Gross.

Rising, Laxus gently lifted the immortal kitten into his arms at the same time, to bring it over to the woman. She eyed him suspiciously and they hadn't spoken, not really, since the whole...incident, but no one had spoken to him either, not really, about his newfound friendship with the little beast.

As he handed him over, Lisanna only tried to force his gaze and, not getting it, settled for words instead.

"I'll bring him back," she offered weakly, a tone of voice he was rare to hear from the perpetual rebellious young adult. "Afterwards. I'll even clean the blood up from his fur, if you want."

He finally looked at her then, giving her what she wanted, but Lisanna just smiled into his eyes.

"We all deserve friends," she reminded him with a nod of her head. "Laxus. Even complete assholes like you."

And as he went to fall into bed without his only one once more, the man could only nod.

Yeah.

They did.

**.**


	4. Chapter 4

The heat faded slowly as the leaves in the overgrown trees that littered the grounds browned and reddened, drifting on windy days to cover the lawn and provide ample things to chase about, when caught in a drift, for the kittens.

Laxus found the autumn at least somewhat welcoming as he spent many of his days raking the seemingly never ending streams of leaves in the far more comfortable temperatures the season provided than the one prior. The days began to grow shorter, which bled into longer nights, and the Mistress frequently was gone for much longer periods of time.

Alone.

Tension had formed in the woman over the past few weeks that had nothing to do with the still unsteady dynamics that were forming in the household. She seemed concerned and bothered by something much deeper and more troublesome than her meddling younger sister or frequently disheartened older brother. Whatever it was, when she returned to the house, she'd immediately want to be alone with Laxus, for the exact reasons she'd kept him around to begin with.

It was a bit concerning. Or at least it should have been, honestly, Laxus knew. For an eternal being so filled with malice and iniquity, that there was something weighing heavy on her mind couldn't bear well for the rest of them. But Laxus observed with the same detached sense of being he provided to the household.

Sometimes it felt like he was just...peeking in. Through the stained and cracked windows. Peering into something too massive for him to properly contain and, eventually, he'd have seen enough and he could just go. Turn around. Walk away. Yet, as the leaves fell and the season changed, the heat of summer left them while he remained, recognizing immorality, but refusing to address it.

If the price for the Strauss family's depravity was soullessness, then he was certain that the part he played would only lead to the darkening of his own.

**.**

It happened on a random day when the Mistress and her siblings were taking part in their unholy slumber beneath the house. Freed was busy roaming the grounds, going over a checklists of things that the Mistress wanted fixed and prepped before her purported early winter would befall them and Bickslow was very busy bemoaning his pathetic life (or at least that's what Laxus imagined him doing; he really didn't pay much attention to the other guy). This left Laxus pretty much alone to snooze, mostly, after a night spent with Mirajane.

But he'd forgotten on person.

He awoke some time afternoon, starved and in search of a meal. From out a window he saw Freed still diligently inspecting the exterior of the house as well as Bickslow tumbling out of trees and, well, at least he could have some peace inside. Strolling to the kitchen, he was more than a bit surprised by what he stumbled upon.

Evergreen.

Which wasn't holly odd. Not necessarily. The woman was a mindless being now, but still just that; being. So it was ignorant of him to just discount her being around. Elfman, for the most part, seemed to keep her locked away in his part of the mansion and Laxus only tried to ignore that particular atrocity as, if he linger on it too much, gave it any sort of thought, then he had to recognized his own hand in the brutal dubiousness in which someone he once considered a dare friend was being held captive by a brute. Laxus struggled enough with his own morality as he went around with a woman decimated the lives of others for her own, personal gain.

To also admit that he was living in the same house in which his friend was brutalized night after night was too much to admit to himself.

So Laxus just didn't.

He couldn't.

Even though he knew that she and Freed were not longer, well, Evergreen and Freed, he knew, he had to know, that somewhere, deep beneath the void the Strauss' had cast upon them, that they did exist. They were just covered up, buried, but there.

The complicity of murder was somehow easier for Laxus to escape than the supposed aloofness required to accept prolonged torture.

Especially sexual.

As condemned and damned as his soul already was, the toll admission to that would be too much.

But when he stumbled upon Evergreen in the kitchen that day, it wasn't to find her aimlessly wandering about which would inevitably lead to him having to awkwardly rush away, muttering not much of an excuse. No.

In fact, he heard Evergreen, even, before he saw her.

She was...humming, oddly enough, as he approached, stood over by a loaf of bread she was slicing a piece of, oblivious to the man approaching behind her until it was too late and he was upon her.

"E-Evergreen?" he asked in surprise and she jumped, the woman did, whirling around to see him as her hums stopped, replaced by sputtered denials.

"Laxus," she gasped as he stared at her in shock. "I thought you were slee- I mean, um, yes, master, I-"

"What the fuck?" Shock fading, the blond man stopped his retreat and instead approached with speed. "You're not… What's going on? Are you…cured?"

It was fucking with him to her see her face so full of emotion after being void for so long. And, as her own surprise tripped over into shame, the woman deflated some, turning back around to stare at the loaf of bread.

"No," she told him softly, even sighing a bit. "Because I was never cursed."

**.**

It all happened so fast. That fateful day. One minute, she was standing around, growing a bit anxious and attempting to talk herself out of it, even, her fears, unwarrented, of course, and brought on by the creepy setting. The next minute, someone was coming up behind her to slam something hard against the back of her head and then...then…

The older vampire (vampiress?) was the first thing Evergreen saw, groggy and confused by all that was going on about them. She was laying flat on her back, on the floor of what she would eventual find to be her prison, but at the time could only surmise it was the manor they'd come to investigate, a living room perhaps, ironically enough. Mirajane, the Mistress, was bent over poor Freed, stretched out there, on the ground, and Evergreen thought it was a nightmare, honestly. The woman seemed to be...biting his neck and she didn't understand, at the time, and thought it was all just brought on by Bickslow bubbly talk over vampires and...and…

Once, when she was a little girl, something horrific happened.

The memories were feint, but she could still bitterly recall the drunken fights her parents would get in with one another. It didn't matter who instigated nor who provoked, which came out worse for it, as she was certain it was her. No. Her mother and father were miserable and loved to make one another miserable.

It was their only joy.

They'd gotten into such a fight one bright afternoon and Evergreen could remember so well, because the spring had just begun and there were birds, singing outside as her mother angrily left the house, grasping her daughter's tiny hand tightly in her own. She was unsteady on her feet, her mother was, but determined to flee from the drunken growls of her husband, so they marched down the road, her mother fuming and the little girl, used to this, only sniffling some, down at her feet, but knowing better than to complain.

But her mother was lost, whether from the intoxication of her anger or her drinks Ever didn't know, but she was so far gone as she grumbled and griped and swore things she didn't mean, she never meant any of the things she promised and vowed, but it wouldn't matter anyways.

None of it would matter.

Her mother crossed the road without looking and was struck fatally by a car. It felt like it came out of nowhere, whipping around the corner, and the teen behind the wheel was surely speeding, but at any other time of day, any other moment, only seconds before or after, it wouldn't have mattered, not in the long run, but that day, that specific day, it did matter.

It mattered a lot.

Evergreen was trailing behind her, just a bit, stumbling over the curb of the sidewalk and her mother's hand slipped out of her grasp. As the woman glanced back behind herself, at her daughter, the bright red car slammed forcibly into her and it was horrible. To relive. She could remember the loud yell that left her lips, burning her throat as some man, a witness to the accident, wrapped her up in his arms and carried her away, trying to shield her eyes the best he could from the mangled wreck that was her mother's corpse.

But she saw it.

She saw it every single time she closed her eyes.

She wouldn't speak.

She couldn't speak.

For weeks following the incident, words few hard and she was traumatized, the doctor told her father in hushed whispers, but Ever heard. And saw. Everything now.

There was no memory for her, of when her silence came to an end, and as she grew older, the entire incident felt so far away. Distant. There were little things that could drag her back, that could remind her. The smell of the same brand of cigarettes her mother smoked, the sight of a red car speeding down a neighborhood road, the bitter taste of beer, just like the one she'd steal sips of, from both her parents, and sometimes, when people yelled too much, got too upset with one another, she could feel herself go all the way back, to being a little girl, hiding out in her room and hoping it would just be over all ready.

When would it be over all ready?

Never for Freed, as the Mistress wasn't feasting on his blood, but rather forcing him into a permanent, eternal trance, and just witnessing the act killed any soft of protest in Ever's throat and she was frozen, even before the woman turned to feast on her.

"She's awake, sis!"

There was a younger. The younger one, was a better term for her. Lisanna. She bounced around the living room with glee as she stood over the trio.

"Isn't she perfect? For Elf?" Lisanna kept up, but then her eyes fell to Ever's side where, though the woman refused to glance, she was certain Bickslow laid. "But what will we do with the other one?"

The Mistress rose finally, from where she'd been bowed over Freed and turned to look down at Evergreen and Bickslow as well.

"I do not have any use for him, should things turn out well with the one over here." She nodded down at Freed, the Mistress did, before shrugging. "Perhaps, he will be an easy hunt for Elfman. When he awakens, I will set him loose, in the woods, and allow Elfman to hunt him down. He looks weak and unable to get far."

"That's not fair! Then Elfman gets two things and I get nothing?"

"Then you decide, Lisanna." And that was the first time Evergreen heard it; the Mistress' tone. It made her shiver, but only slightly as she was mostly still frozen. As blue eyes fell from a stony glare at her sister and into curiosity to Evergreen, she remarked simply, "No attempt to flee? Resound to your fate? Good. It will make things much easier."

And Evergreen opened her mouth, the terror rising through her chest, but no words came out and she couldn't move, even though she desperately wanted to, had to, needed to, run away, get away from here, whatever this was, but it felt so much like a nightmare, a bad dream, and she...she…

Laid there. Silent, but horrified as the Mistress fell to her knees beside her and her teeth sunk into Evergreen's neck about the same moment that Freed stirred, sitting up and taking a few deep breaths, also silent in an equal lack of control.

It was by chance that, at that exact moment, upstairs, Elfman exclaimed and there was a thud. Mirajane withdrew from Evergreen prematurely as both she and Lisanna turned, rushing from the room unison to check on their brother. It would be nothing, in actuality, but rather as he transferred Laxus to a chair, to chain him, per his sister's instructions, he would drop the man accidentally.

Still, it was his blunder that led to Evergreen's transformation not being completed and, as she blinked up at the ceiling, uncertain, she could only hear Freed breathing as he sat there, otherwise silent, void, and Bickslow still conked out beside her.

There was a choice to be made. Right then and there. To get up and run. Flee. Or to lay there and wait for the inevitable return of the other women. But the choice was mad for her, not unlike how unconsciousness chose it for Bickslow and a darkness for Freed.

Fear.

Horrific and terrifying, crippling and gripping, there was no passerby to come and scoop her up. No. She merely laid there, trapped not by an ungodly curse, but rather her own inability to just leave. To just move. Do anything to help herself.

She felt helpless.

Like a child again.

Something out of her control had saved her, momentarily. She tripped, leaving her mother to be struck, and timing alone left Freed to be the one whose soul was diminished. All she could do was view the carnage she'd miraculously been spared from and question just why this was.

When Mirajane returned, her focus was immediately on Freed, who Ever mimicked to the best of her ability, sitting in a similar manner as the man, trying to time her breathing with his deep, heavy ones. Lisanna, on the other hand, was overly thrilled at the blinking and head rubbing Bickslow was doing, ignoring Evergreen completely as well.

But there was another.

"She's yours now, little brother," the Mistress informed Elfman as he only stood above the woman, staring curiously down at her. "To do as you please."

And Ever was so afraid of it, what it meant; what he pleased.

"Yes, Mistress," seemed to be the only things Freed would said, as he was led away from the woman and Evergreen found it best to do the same, to the sibling that led her away, to another part of the house.

"You can come with me. I just...I… Big sis, she says that I need to...be around others. Again. After… Here. This is my room. Just...sit down. On the bed."

Sshe couldn't repeat it though. The response Freed seemed involuntarily spew. This might have raised an alarm from the Mistress, but Elfman seemed unconcerned as Evergreen did as asked, at least, and she was dying inside, fearful and afraid when he closed the door behind him and approached.

But then he just…

Sat there.

Beside her.

Not even touching her.

Squeezing his fists tightly, he shut his eyes and took in a deep breath before he just started...sobbing and crying, the big brute of a man and she'd been fearful of what brutal torture he would bring to her, what depravity, but he only moaned, late into the night, about how much of a failure he was, as a man, and something about an injury. An incident.

An accident.

"I used to be powerful and strong," he wept into his palms. "And now look at me."

She couldn't.

She wouldn't.

When it got close to dawn, he dried his tears and gave a halfhearted command to stay, but didn't feel too commanding, whispered so softly and almost posed as a question.

She did.

Stay.

At first out of fear that he would return, daylight or no daylight, but as time went on and she heard Freed roam the house, dutifully, as well as what sounded like...Bickslow...playing, for some reason, she knew she could make a break for it. That she should make a break for it.

But the fear was still there. The uncertainty. What all did they know about her? Their new vampire overlords? Would they hunt her down if she escaped? Kill her? That was surely a worse fate, yes, than the one that she'd been sentenced to?

No, she realized, day in and day out observing the void Freed filling his duties tirelessly.

But she wasn't living the term she'd been sentenced to. She was only pretended to. And as she found her days to be filled with snoozing as well as she could (from what she could tell, Freed seemed to not need the function and didn't know what would happen, should someone realize she did and therefore determine she was not under the same spell as the man) while her nights were lived by the side of the whining, depressed mammoth of a man as he bemoaned his never-ending life.

It was much the same as the Mistress would inform Laxus in those early days; repulsion wiped away by repetition and, if you do something long enough, you begin to forget that you could ever do anything more. Anything less.

And there were certainly worse fates to be sealed to.

Weren't there?

**.**

Laxus hadn't felt so anxious in a long while. Well, since the last big shake up in the Strauss manor, which would have been when Lisanna attempted to jump his bones. No. Not since that day he was tussling with Bickslow over a woman he didn't even want did Laxus appear absent, even in the presence of his Mistress.

She hardly noted it, at first, Mirajane didn't as he sat around on the couch, toying with his hands and glancing around, shifty, really, unnerved, but she was only focused on her wine and moon watching. Lingering. That's what she did a lot. Lingered about. Paced.

They were both so caught up in their own melodramas that it was simple enough to miss out on one another's.

It had only been a few hours before, after all, that Laxus had discovered that while he and Bickslow were adjusting to their lives with their respective Strauss sibling, there was someone else doing much the same.

His brain felt broken, honestly, non-functioning, as he stood there, aghast in the kitchen beside Evergreen, jaw slacked and eyes wide. Not every detail was shared by the woman, but she did indicate to him that yes, she had been awake this whole time, rather than stuck in a never-ending trance like their other friend, and had every ounce of consciousness she'd arrived with.

"The whole time," Laxus whispered softly, taking steps away from her, "you've just been...you..."

"Yeah," Ever agreed, glancing away from the bread then and over her shoulder at the man. "I know everything, Laxus."

And there was something in her gaze, as he met it, that washed away his relief in finding his friend, at the very least, only a prisoner in physicality, not mentally. Because there wasn't relief in Ever's gaze, to find him the same, because, of course, she'd know that he was still himself. Fully. That there was no spell, no curse that had befallen him.

"Why did you wait so long to tell me?" he asked as a new realization was overcoming him and he knew her answer before it left her mouth.

Tone matching the look in her eyes, she retorted, "And interrupt your love affair?"

"Ever-"

"You and Bickslow are sick."

"No." He even shook his head, a pit forming in his stomach at her accusation. "We're not. Er, well, yeah, he is, maybe, but I'm-"

"Sick."

"Evergreen-"

"I know what you're doing Laxus and it's disgusting and vile and-"

"You don't know anything! You just sit around with that stupid oaf all day and-"

"I know enough."

"I am not," he told her then, voice dropping to a low octave as he took a step closer to her, "evil. I'm caught up in all of this just like you are."

"You're nothing like me."

"If you're so miserable, Ever, then why don;'t you just run? Huh? Right now? Go run away. And then-"

"And then be tracked down by those horrible creatures? Have them hunt me? Kill me?" She was facing him fully then, a shiver running down her body as she said, "I… I can't, Laxus. I'm too afraid. But you..." 

"I'm afraid too."

"No."

"I am too! Constantly. I-"

"No, I meant…" And she was the one then, that took a step towards him, gaze softening as she reached for the man. As she took his hand, Laxus was the one that felt frozen, but Ever only gripped it tightly and it shouldn't have been so comforting, for either of them, but given that it had been so long since either had felt the truth warmth of anything besides the undead, it actually made perfect sense. "I'm too afraid, Laxus, and yes, maybe you're afraid too, but not too afraid. Like me. You could do it. You could kill them."

He blinked, the blond man did, but stayed silent as Evergreen only stared up into his eyes, sounding excited for the first time in months as she squeezed his hand tighter still.

"While they sleep," she insisted. 'You could go down into the cellar and you could kill them. And then we would be free. And know that they wouldn't come after us. Laxus, yes, you could-"

"I can't."

"What? Laxus, yes, you-"

"I can't," he repeated and withdrew then, his hand and his presence, walking backwards back out of the room. "Ever, I… I'm sorry. I am. I wish-"

"This is the only way, Laxus."

"I can't."

And Ever's expression changed once more, looking more like herself, what he remembered, what he'd spent the past few months mourning. He had been mourning, hadn't he?

"You won't," she challenged and it was then that they both heard the front door open, out in the entrance, and Freed was calling out for Laxus, to begin on all the repairs he'd marked down under the direction of the Mistress as well as Bickslow, whining something about having hurt his back, after yet another failed flip, and he wasn't evil.

Laxus wasn't.

He wasn't.

No way.

He hadn't chosen all of this.

It was thrust upon him, just the same as her, and he had those same fears. Didn't he? The Mistress hunting him down in the night? Sure, he wasn't charmed or in a trance, but he was just as much a prisoner as she was.

So why didn't it feel that way?

It stuck with him, this hopelessness and futile attempts at clearing his name slain only in the minds of he and Evergreen, but when there were only two sane people around to pass such a judgment, the fact that the unbiased one could easily come to such a decision obviously weighed heavy on the other.

As the evening wound on, Laxus found himself eventually falling into bed with Mirajane, but not for anything more but to lie there, together, her now inebriated enough to lose some of her worries and him tired enough to almost forget his.

Almost.

"You're distant," the Mistress remarked as she toyed with his hair and it was difficult for the man to meet her eyes. "My love."

"Am I?" he volleyed back weakly, not meaning it as a challenge, but she took it as one all the same.

Letting out a long breath, her pale fingers stilled in his golden locks as she remarked, "You are bothered, yes? By my frequent absences?"

"Your what? Oh, no, it's not-"

"It is alright," she insisted to him, but no, nothing had been since they'd answered that damn request, all those months ago. "I have told you before that I would answer any of your questions and yet-"

"Where have you been going?" he asked then, getting a look for cutting her off, but he only shut his eyes tightly, hoping that her explanation, whatever it might be, would sooth him long enough for sleep. He knew when he awoke, it would mean she was gone, sealed away from the daylight once more, while he had a high chance of interacting with Evergreen, which meant facing his own shortcomings once more.

He really had never been good at accepting his failures.

It was part of the reason his grandfather had kicked him out of the group home in the first place.

'There is," Mirajane began slowly, sounding for perhaps the first time uncertain of herself and what she was informing him of, "a hierarchy involved in such things. My siblings and I have...laws and regulations, which must be followed. We all do. And recently-"

"There's a legion," he cut her off again which, at the removal of her cold fingers from his warm hand informed him that this was the wrong decision. Still, he powered on. "Of vampires. I knew it. I fucking knew it. And-"

"You," Mirajane remarked as she sat back then, shifting away from him, "have recovered fast."

It was a good way to drown out the Evergreen drama, at least. Because he didn't care what she said, what she thought. He'd never wished for this, never would, but he was stuck and trapped and it was all magical. Not whimsical, given the darker implications and actualized atrocities he both witness and passively participated in, but still fantastical in that, at times, it felt unreal.

It was unreal, really.

All of it.

It had to be.

Vampires were the tales children were fed to keep them off the streets after dark.

They were trash horror for the weak minded.

They weren't real.

None of this was real.

And any part that he played in it was just him going along to get along.

Just like her.

Evergreen could do the same things she wanted him to do.

Climb down the dark staircase into the damp cellar and stab them, all three of them, right through the heart. Ending all of their misery. Strauss siblings included.

The fact she didn't gave him all the vindication he needed in his refusal to do so.

"You go off to meet a group of other vampires," Laxus replied simply, "to discuss on-going drama among your separate clans. Fantastic. All of it."

But she didn't want to play with him, it seemed, annoyed over his lack of solemnity, and only rose from the bed to go back to it. Her window. To watch. Almost like she was waiting for something. Not fearful. He'd never seen her fearful. But something not far off from it.

"Enjoy your jest, my golden dragon," she replied dryly as he only shook his head some, just from the thoughts she'd sprang into it. "But not in my bed."

He felt something like an argument on his tongue, but then again, it was probably for the best. Getting away from her for the night. Clearly, both their minds were elsewhere.

"Ah, boss, get kicked out by the missus, did ya?"

Laxus was none too pleased though when, upon leaving her chambers, he found Lisanna and Bickslow very busy out in the hallway. He'd heard them out there, at least somewhat, from the stillness of Mira's bedroom, but had been unsure of what they were doing exactly.

No though, he knew.

"You both need to grow the fuck up," he grumbled as he passed them, on his way to his own bedroom.

"Same," Lisanna retorted, but Bickslow only snickered after him.

"C'mon, boss," he insisted with a snicker as he and Lisanna continued to stack their dominoes just so, down the long hallway, in an orderly way, no doubt for one only to tumble into the other. "Who's too old for fun?"

But it wasn't fun.

None of this was fun.

And any fun that he did have was tainted by the fact that he was a murderer, wasn't he? At least an accomplice and his soul wasn't just becoming blotted, it was completely soiled through and he might not have been given the same affliction as the others, didn't bare the curse, but he would never leave this manor.

Not as the person he entered it as.

Nor the person he had become while being in it.

Everything began here and it would end her eventually and Evergreen was right.

He was sick and vile and disgusting and as he fell into his bed, he knew he would do nothing to change it.

Not a single damn thing.

Because it was as the Mistress had told him, the first time he realized he hadn't been charmed; every thing he'd done with her, every monstrous, demented thing had been bred of his own dark desires. Twisted fantasies.

He'd know this, he'd come to terms with this, it was all laid out for him on previous pondering, but to see the way she looked at him, the judgment in her eyes and the betrayal in her tone…

"Eventually," she'd warned him, before scurrying away that day, back to Elfman's bedroom, to hide out from the others until the evening, "shadows fade, Laxus. And everything done within them is brought into the light."

And while his tiny, cramped bedroom was hardly the light, his actions no longer felt distant. A motion to go through. For all the resentment he had for Bickslow, for enjoying every last second of their lives with the vile monsters that fed on the life force of those around them, knowing that Evergreen pictured him in the exact same way really stuck with Laxus.

Lying awake and listening to the jester snicker and giggle with the younger Strauss out in the hall, Laxus was struck by how he and Mirajane might sound, from inside her bedchambers, to any passerby.

Judge and be judge.

Or don't judge, he thought as he tried hard to think of it then, a legion of vampires, unimaginable and fantastical, and still be so, from your immoral actions.


End file.
